


Be True to Your School

by rayo



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Cheerleader!Sabrina, F/M, Jock!Nick, No Academy - But don't worry they're still witches, Playboy!Nick, jock/cheerleader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2020-05-07 13:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19210672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayo/pseuds/rayo
Summary: Nicholas Scratch is the Golden Boy™ of Baxter High; star athlete, top of his class academically, and devastatingly handsome. Sabrina Spellman sees Sophomore year as an opportunity to expand her horizons; joining the cheerleading squad, running for student council, and making new friends along the way while working to maintain her relationships with her old friends. What Sabrina Spellman doesn't know: sophomore year is about to turn her world upside-down.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This entire story is inspired by; Sabrina's dream in 1x05 where Nick is a jock at Baxter High, @thetvmoviefan on Tumblr posting “So I’m going to need an AU Nabrina Fic where Nick and Sabrina are still both Witches but also a Jock/Cheerleader. Yesss please!!!”, and this damn manip that @spellmansnicholas on made (https://spellmansnicholas.tumblr.com/post/185567806978/a-concept)

As the fall slowly encroached on the summer holiday, the mortal world resumed its natural rhythm. Community pools started to close. The neighborhood playgrounds grew sparse. Then as a final bow, was Billy Marlin’s annual labor day weekend blowout. 

Per usual, everyone who was anyone in Greendale was invited. Though in a turn of events, this year the party took on a more relaxed tone. Open invitations and plus ones were handed out freely, meaning that the majority of Baxter High decided to show up. 

While his parents were still away summering in The Hamptons as they did every year. The infamous Marlin family mansion was filled with copious amounts of alcohol and a variety of party activities at his guests disposal.

As one could reasonably expect, the free-flowing booze led to some very inebriated teenagers, and if it weren’t for the fact that the Marlin family has the Greendale PD in their pocket, the party would’ve been cut off hours ago.

Like most American high schools, Baxter High held tryouts for fall sports in the middle of summer. So even though it was only Labor Day, the football team had already been practicing for a few weeks, helping to explain the strong camaraderie even among the Freshman players.

There were the usual subgroups at the party; The gregarious and rowdy football jocks, the gazelle-legged cross country team, the undefeated girls volleyball team, the ivy-league bound elite academics who dabbled in athletics only to round-out their college applications, the kids who went to the same middle school and were just hanging out with each other due to an unspoken sense of obligation, and the Baxter High Ravenettes cheer team which somehow managed to have its own sub-cliques.

Finally, there was Sabrina Spellman, who couldn’t exactly figure out where she fit into all of this.

Last year, she would’ve fit comfortably into the _elite academics_ group. In addition to her regular schooling, her Aunts tutored her at home throughout her childhood and did a remarkably good job at it. Her cousin Ambrose told stories of his university days and experiences abroad, making Sabrina far more cultured than the average high schooler. She knew all these kids from her advanced placement classes, and they welcomed her into their club with open arms. But for a reason others couldn’t quite understand, Sabrina’s always preferred to stick with her ragtag, misfit friend group.

The intricacies of figuring out where she belonged started sometime earlier this summer.

At her Aunt Hilda’s encouragement, Sabrina went out on a limb and tried out for the cheer team. The only major obstacle she faced was the fact that she was hated by Prudence Night, the team’s formidable captain.

Throughout the tryout period, Prudence had worked to break Sabrina and make her life a living Hell. What Prudence didn’t expect, was that thanks to years of ballet lessons, Sabrina was astonishingly flexible. She had natural athletic prowess and a diminutive stature. All of these attributes perfectly lent themselves to prove she was an ideal candidate for a position on the team as a flyer.

Though she didn’t want to let her on the team, even Prudence couldn’t argue with the fact that Sabrina was an ideal candidate. Thankfully, Prudence prioritized winning competitions over personal grudges, so the petite Spellman girl made the team, if only for the fact she was easier to throw up into the air. 

Even with the hazing of being one of the new girls, cheerleading wasn’t as far out of her comfort zone as she had initially expected it to be, and it was a role she thrived in.

This was her sixteenth year, and while she hadn’t reached the milestone yet, her birthday was just around the corner. Consequently, this also meant her _unholy confirmation_ was fast approaching as well. 

As a _half-witch_ , she’d been assured that her _Dark Baptism_ would shape the rest of her life. So while she anxiously awaited the day. She intended to cherish every moment with her mortal friends that she had left.

Somehow, at the urging of her new friends from the Varsity cheerleading team, a _Harvey-less_ Sabrina found herself at Billy Marlin’s party. Standing side-by-side with her new cheer sisters, she pretended to be interested in what seemed to be a particularly intense game of beer pong; her experience was limited, so she couldn’t be sure. The game ended with defensive lineman, Carl Tapper, getting a bucket of pool water dumped over his fully clothed body.

“Come on Tap, I thought you said you were good at beer pong,” Billy jabs, approaching the table, never missing an opportunity to bust someone’s chops.

Sabrina excuses herself from the group on the premise she’s going to find something to drink. Since the moment Billy Marlin greeted the cheer team by passing around red Solo cups, she’s been carrying around the same one. It was a bright orange color, and at first glance, it seemed like something she might enjoy if it was served in a tiki glass with one of those small umbrellas. A single sip threw that thought out the window. Besides, if Billy made it, it probably wasn’t the best idea to drink from it to begin with.

She walks through the large backyard, making her way towards the house while shooting off a quick SOS text to Roz. 

**_Sabrina: I thought you were going to come! I’m all alone :('_ **

Her phone buzzes before she can even close her messaging app.

**_Roz: I’ll be there in five, Suzie backed out on me last minute. Are you sure you don’t want to invite Harvey?_ **

She lets out a sigh as she types her response.

**_Sabrina: Harvey would only come because he’d feel obligated to, then he’d complain about the crowd. I’m hanging out with him tonight anyways._ **

Distracted as she’s walking into the house, she bumps into someone, nearly causing them to drop whatever drink they’re holding.

“ _Woah_ , Spellman. Watch where you’re going,” the words are harsh but his tone communicates that he’s only messing with her.

She checks if any of the spilled drink got on her clothes while she attempts to compose herself. The flush on her cheeks betraying her, “Nicholas… Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“Clearly,” he quips with an amused laugh. Before shifting all of his attention to her.

“You’re here alone?” he pries curiously, an insufferable smugness in his tone.

“I came with some girls from cheer, and Roz should be here any minute,” she replies, trying to be polite, even though his cocky demeanor mildly infuriates her in a way she doesn’t really understand.

“No _Harry?_ ” 

She rolls her eyes and corrects him. Suddenly understanding why his cockiness bothers her. 

“His name is Harvey _..._ and he doesn’t like coming to these things.”

“A good boyfriend shouldn’t leave their girl alone at a party. Believe it or not, there are plenty of guys here who don’t seem to respect the sanctity of relationships...”

“Such as yourself?”

“ _Nah_ , I might not like the fact that you’re in a relationship but I still respect it…. No matter how damn cute you look in that dress,” he says with a wink before taking off past her. Leaving Sabrina standing there in the doorway, awestruck at his unabashed flirting.

She gets herself a glass of water from the tap, not trusting any other liquid on the premises. Her mind is reeling at the interaction. She attempts to self-regulate and calm herself down, knowing that it was his goal to get her riled up, and she doesn’t want to give him that satisfaction.

It wasn’t anything new, Nick has made the occasional pass at her before. When the cheer squad practiced in the gym, the football team always made a point to walk by them on their way to the locker room. While the rest of the team cast a wide net, providing general flirtatious comments and wolf whistles to the cheer team as a whole. Nick was spearfishing, his target almost always being Sabrina.

Nowadays, there was almost never a practice that didn’t end with a sweaty and shirtless Nick Scratch purposefully singling her out by shouting, ‘ _looking good Spellman!_ ’ or something of that nature. 

Prudence, Dorcas, and Agatha all had voiced their distaste, attempting to hide behind the moralistic decency of _‘doesn’t he know you have a boyfriend?’_

Sabrina wasn’t ignorant to the gossip that ran rampant through Baxter High. She knew it cut deeper for the three of them. She’d heard the rumors, Nick had dated each one of them, but apparently broke up with one after the other once they had sex. 

Despite his unsavory behavior, Dorcas ran back to him, trying to figure out where everything went wrong and what she could do to win him back. As the rumor went, Dorcas alone wasn’t enough for him. So they compromised and dated for a bit… _all of them._

Now as far as Sabrina knew, he’d been single all summer, but his sexual reputation was always the hot topic everyone brought up when his name was mentioned and somehow, despite being a complete womanizer, his reputation among the ladies of Baxter High was overwhelmingly positive. 

Even being in a loving relationship with Harvey, she had to admit that the way Nick looked at her sometimes was tempting. But she sure as Hell wasn’t about to become his latest conquest.

Sabrina jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder, immensely relieved when she turned around just to be enveloped in a tight hug by Roz.

“ _Finally_ , I’m _so_ glad you made it!” Sabrina exclaims excitedly.

Upon noticing Roz is looking a bit nicer than usual. Sabrina performs an exaggerated full body look over to hype up her best friend, “You look _incredible_!”

“Aw, thanks ‘Brina. You look… _different_?” Roz raises an eyebrow, trying to place what’s different about her friend.

“Thanks I guess?” Sabrina replies with a nervous laugh.

“You look pretty, just different than what I remember...”

“It’s probably just all the sun I’ve been getting. Besides, you were only gone for a month Roz.”

“A month too long,” she says, pointedly filling her cup with something alcoholic.

“How was your Bible camp?” Sabrina asks curiously.

 Roz had been going every year since she was old enough to sleep away from home, all at her father’s insistence. Reverend Walker was the pastor at Greendale Baptist Church and a beloved figure in their community, known for his easy-going demeanor. However, when it came to his daughter he tended to keep her on tight leash. So much so that Sabrina was sure Roz had to lie about where she was going to be here right now. Sure, he was a supportive and loving father, but when it came to matters of the church and their image within the church, he was pretty strict.

Roz gets giddy and Sabrina welcomes the exciting change in her demeanor, “ _Roz._ ”

“I did _it_ ,” she admits, unable to hide the smile on her face.

“Like _the thing?_ ” Sabrina asks, wanting to specify that she’s talking about what she _thinks_ she’s talking about.

“Yeah, _that thing._ You’re the first person I’ve told.”

“Oh my God Roz! With _who?”_ she pries, excited to hear a firsthand account from someone she actually felt like she could relate to on the subject. 

She’d heard plenty of sex stories at cheer practice, but all of the girls telling them seemed to have previous experience. She had also suspected that a lot of them were just exaggerating for social clout. Far too many stories featured a certain football player, so after a while she just tuned them out, deciding they were definitely exaggerating on that front.

“His name is _Jordan Bixby_ , and he’s a total babe. He’s a senior at some private school in Connecticut and he’s a musician, he plays jazz guitar and he’s been doing the pre-college program at Julliard for the past four years, and he’s _Baptist_.  I don’t even think that my dad will be able to find a fault in the guy which is crazy in itself.”

“Okay, I’ve got a feel for the guy… but how was _it_?” Sabrina asks, wanting to hear the juicy details. 

After all, Roz is the first person in their friend group to lose her virginity. She’s been considering going there with Harvey but it hasn’t come up yet, and the whole saving herself for her Dark Baptism only further complicated things.

“Well, at first I was super scared. I didn't know what I was doing just that I really liked him and then we were alone and I remember this sensation, like a tingling up my spine and even though I was scared, my body just sort of took over and knew what to do. But it was good, probably as good as a first time can be,” Roz admits and Sabrina grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her excitedly.

“Rosalind, you’re a _woman_ now” Sabrina exclaims, raising her water glass up to Roz’s solo cup in cheers.

“You were safe, right?” Sabrina asks concerned.

“Of course, I’m not willing to perpetuate the stereotype of the good Christian girl who gets pregnant at Bible camp.”

They laugh and head to the backyard to play a few rounds of cornhole, Roz proving she's significantly better than Sabrina.

“How many frat parties do you go to Roz?” She teases, poking fun at her skills.

“We play cornhole at Jesus camp!” she yells across with a laugh.

“Coming through!” a mass of guys yell out, carrying someone in a rushed mission to the pool, Sabrina recognizes the guy they’re carrying as Nick, and the boys launch his body into the water.

Thankfully his body misses the few people already in the pool, but unfortunately for Nick, they threw him in fully clothed. He quickly gets out and acts calm, stripping himself of his soaked shirt before making a run for one of the guys, tackling him from behind and pinning a visibly drunk Seth Grinwis to the ground.

Sabrina watches on as the two boys grapple, noticing something on Nick’s back that to anyone else would just appear to be a tattoo or scar, but Sabrina _knows._ And now that she’s seen it, she’s never going to get the thought out of her head until she confronts him about it. 

Nick Scratch _\- the Golden Boy of Baxter High_ -is a warlock. The witches mark on his back irrefutably proving it.

“I mean I get it, but you’re being pretty obvious with staring at a guy who isn’t Harvey,” Roz says, trying to bring Sabrina back to her senses.

“I was trying to figure out what his tattoo means,” Sabrina admits softly, causing Roz to relax a bit, now that she knows Sabrina isn’t looking at Nick Scratch like _that_. Even if his muscles would lead anyone with a pulse to do the same, she can't help but look out for her friends, Harvey included.

The two eventually stop rolling on the ground and Nick, still soaking, throws a devilish smirk in their direction as he walks past, “ _hey Spellman._ ”

She rolls her eyes and turns to Roz, “he won’t leave me alone.”

“Call me crazy if it makes you feel better, but he’s definitely trying to get at you ‘Brina.”

“I know, earlier he asked me whether Harvey was coming.”

“I told you so! You definitely should’ve invited him,” Roz says pointedly, insinuating that she wouldn’t have to deal with Nick’s incessant flirting if Harvey was here.

“You know Nick, it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

Roz agrees and takes a sip of her drink.

“Are you coming to the football game Friday night? ”

“Yeah, I’m supposed to go with Suzie and Harvey. We’re planning on cheering you on. I think Suzie might be making a sign,” Roz admits with a smile.

“Pretty sure I’m the one who’s supposed to be cheering,” Sabrina teases. The two of them look and find seats around the bonfire that the boys got going a little bit ago.

“All of this is just so new, I mean last year you were playing Kim in _Bye Bye Birdie_ , and now you’re a cheerleader. Just seems a little out of left field for you,” Roz admits, revealing her own insecurities about losing Sabrina as a friend due to her having new cheer friends.

“I’m still me Roz! I just figured I’d give cheer a shot and I actually really like it. My Aunt Hilda was a cheerleader when she was in school, she thought it would be a fun thing for me to experience. Besides, she’ll be coming to the game, and I think she might be living vicariously through me, just a little bit anyways,” Sabrina says with a laugh.

“As long as you don’t leave us for your new friends,” Roz says back, appreciating the fact Sabrina understands her worries.

“That will never happen Roz,” Sabrina reassures her with a hug.

“Now that’s settled, do you want to get out of here? It’s only going to get rowdier and I’m not sure that my dad would appreciate bailing his daughter out for being busted at a party with underage drinking.”

“I can drive, I mean I only have my permit but I’d rather you not drive, even though it was only one drink,” Sabrina offers.

“Yeah, that’d be good. I didn’t even mean to drink, I can’t even taste the alcohol in this punch,” Roz says with a chuckle.

“Leave it to the football team to make a drink with Everclear taste like nothing… I guess this is their training for all the fraternities they’re going to join,” Sabrina jokes and the two of them stroll down the long driveway to get to Roz’s car.

Sabrina drives Roz home, going in with her to hang out. Smiling when she sees Roz’s parents in the living room, attempting to detract attention from Roz.

“Hello Mrs. Walker, Reverend,” Sabrina greets with a cheery smile. The pair begin fawning over her, clearly loving when their daughter brings her friends home, at least the ones they approve of. 

“Sabrina are you staying for dinner?” Mrs. Walker asks.

“Actually, I have a date night planned with Harvey, otherwise I’d love to,” she admits before excusing herself to join Roz in her room.

Shooting off a quick text to Harvey, Roz peers over her shoulder to view the screen. 

**_Sabrina: Being held hostage at Roz’s please come rescue me._ **

Roz smacks her arm and Sabrina giggles, sending a follow up text.

**_Sabrina: Just kidding, but seriously come and get me!_ **

The girls gossip about their summers, Roz somehow managing to make Bible Camp sound like a fun way to spend the summer, while Sabrina details the Hell she was put through with rigorous cheer practices.

“Honestly, I’ve always been scared of Prudence. I saw her verbally obliterate a girl to tears freshman year so I’ve tried to keep clear of her. Meanwhile you’ve willingly entered the lions den.”

“Prudence isn’t _that_ bad, I mean she’s ruthless at times and I know for a fact that she hates me, but I appreciate that she doesn’t take crap from anyone. If she wasn’t so manipulative I wouldn’t mind actually being friends with her,” Sabrina admits.

“Did she drug you at the party? I can’t believe you just said that!” Roz shrieks.

Sabrina rolls her eyes in response.

“But seven am practices? During summer break? I’d gauge my eyes out... You’re such a masochist.”

“I think they were just a hazing of sorts, I just treated them like they were normal and I think she liked that I didn’t let it phase me. Some of the other girls were clearly drained and upset about it, and they tended to get the brunt of her bitching.”

There’s a knock at the door that disturbs the two of them, Sabrina opening it up to face the Reverend, “Mr. Kinkle is at the door.”

“Thank you Mr. Walker,” Sabrina says, both of them going to the door to greet him and Roz waving the two love birds off.

Harvey greets Sabrina by picking her up and spinning her in a circle, planting a gentle kiss on her lips when he sets her down.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Sabrina says with a smile, Harvey wrapping an arm around her waist and walking her to his truck.

“How’s my cheerleader?”

“I’m good, Roz was catching me up on Bible Camp,” she says matter-of-factly.

Standing up on her toes to give him another kiss before he opens the door for her.

“So, what do you want to do tonight? Go see a movie at the drive-in? Roller Skating? Skinny dip in Sweetwater River?” Sabrina teases and Harvey's eyes widen, and she giggles, pleased that she got a reaction out of him.

“Actually, I had a little something planned if you’re up for it.”

“Okay, a surprise. I can live with that,” she replies looking up at him excitedly, a distinct twinkle in her eyes, that he’s only ever seen on her.

He drives them out to the south entrance of the mines, having planned a picnic on top of the hill, he left the bag of food in his car but laid out the blanket on top of the hill ahead of time.

Once she sees the blanket laid out she walks with a little bounce in her step, “you planned a picnic?”

“I hope you like it?” he asks sheepishly and the kiss he’s given in response lays all doubts to rest.

“I love this Harvey Kinkle,” she says and he notices how she uses the L word so freely when talking about _things_.

After they chat and have eaten the sandwiches he packed, Harvey pulls out his sketchbook and starts to draw her.

“How much longer do I have to stay still?” Sabrina asks, a smile playing at her lips.

“You can move, I have all the outlining down, just let me get a better look at you,” he says, cupping her face with his hand and moving her head closer to him, pretending to examine every facial feature before pulling her in for a sweet kiss. 

Sabrina desperately deepens it to a more passionate affair, slipping her tongue into his willing mouth, taking on the dominant role in their little dance. Moving her leg over his so her thighs are wrapped around him.

Harvey is dumbfounded at this confident vixen that’s replaced his girlfriend, and he’s left to consider whether this is all actually happening or just another dream of his. Sabrina nibbling at his bottom lip puts that idea to rest though, she’s actually straddling him, and kissing him as if her life depended on it. 

During a break in their kissing, he touches her bottom lip with his thumb, taking in her lusty appearance. Her lips rosy, swollen from the kissing. Their skin slightly glistened with sweat thanks to the unfortunate humidity of the late summer. 

She kisses the tip of his finger, and he indulges his desire to lick off some of the perspiration beading on her neck. Leaving a trail of kisses on her neck, before making it to her clavicle, sucking and nibbling on the skin there to leave a mark or two.

Even though she’s moaning now that he’s found her sweet spot, she’s inevitably going to bemoan the love bites he’s left, knowing there’s no reasonable excuse for wearing a turtleneck when it’s eighty degrees outside.

Harvey’s just desperate to prove she’s _his_ . Wanting to take control over her, making sure she’s still _his Sabrina_ , despite the fact she’s been running with a different crowd as of late.

“Harvey,” she whispers his name like a prayer and they hold each other until the sun sets, then laying side-by-side, gazing at the starry sky above them.

Tuesday morning, the first day of classes starts. The air in the halls of Baxter high is charged with electricity. Numerous students running to hug each other, random freshman attempting to navigate the school with schedules clutched tightly in their hands, and the cheerleading team deciding to dress up in school colors to promote school spirit.

Naturally, the athletes at school are more comfortable than anyone else, having already been practicing for a month, they have pre-existing bonds with their classmates and obligatory friendships to help them navigate the school year

Roz has a camera around her neck, taking photos of the first day for the yearbook while Suzie does the same for the Baxter High Gazette. 

Roz manages to line up a fairly decent shot down the hall, capturing the commotion and hectic movement of the students when a pair of arms wrap around her, causing her to jump.

“Sabrina!” Roz whines, only the tiniest bit upset that she’d ruined her shot. 

“Hey, would you mind sharing whatever pictures you get?” Roz asks Suzie, who’s almost completely ignoring them while she’s attempting to come up with an exciting narrative for the first day back.

Harvey sneaks up behind Sabrina and wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her into a tight hug from behind. She cranes her neck around to kiss him and Suzie jokingly scoffs, “you two are _disgusting._ ”

The four of them go over their schedules, attempting to figure out what courses they have together.

“We have the same lunch period!” Harvey announces happily, glad that their schedules have given them a good time to rendezvous during the school day

“Looks like we have the same homeroom,” Sabrina points out to Roz and Harvey.

“Mrs. Wardwell for history,” Roz confirms.

“And the only period they could set aside for newspaper staffers was homeroom. _Go figure_. You kids have fun though,” Suzie laments, shooting the trio finger guns as she wanders off to her first class.

“Well I guess we better get going,” Sabrina announces and the three head towards room B121, 

“Oh, Sabrina-” She hears taunting voices sing out from behind them, turning over her shoulder to see Agatha and Dorcas calling her over. 

“Sorry guys, duty calls. I’ll catch up with you guys in homeroom,” Sabrina says apologetically before running off to meet with the cheer squad.

“Hey girls, what’s up?”

“We’re going homecoming dress shopping after practice today, you’re coming,” Dorcas says, not as a question, but as something that’s been pre-decided for her.

“I have plans to go dress shopping with Roz. I’m going to the homecoming dance with Harvey so I was just thinking tha-”

“But you have to go with a football player, like, that’s the rule Sabrina,” another girl- _Katie, she thinks? -_ interjects. 

“She doesn’t have to go with a football player, but you at least need to find an odd one out who will let you wear their jersey to school on game day… _that’s the rule_ ,” Dorcas interjects, correcting the naive freshman.

“And you’re still coming dress shopping with us, we need your opinion if nothing else,” Agatha adds.

“Fine, anything else?” Sabrina asks reluctantly.

“No, feel free to run off back to your _friends,_ ” Agatha and Dorcas say in sync, which if it were anyone else Sabrina would find it creepy, but spending the past few weeks with them has made her understand their idiosyncrasies a little better.

Sabrina starts to walk off when she hears footsteps running up behind her, “hey Spellman.”

Out of habit, she rolls her eyes before turning to him, “Nicholas.”

“Where are you headed?”

“Wardwell’s for homeroom,” she offers.

“Same, I might as well walk you there then.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea.”

“ _Oh_ , is Harry in our class?”

“ _Harvey_ and Roz are both in our class, and I don’t want to rub salt in any potential wounds. They’re still getting used to the idea of me being on the cheer team and I don’t want them to think anything of _this_ ,” Sabrina says unconvincingly, using her finger to gesture between the two of them.

“Well, I think you’re just worried that Harry is going to get jealous,” Nick says hitting a nerve with his usual infuriatingly smug demeanor.

“What could he possibly be jealous of?” Sabrina plays dumb, not wanting Nick to push this any further than he already has.

“You tell me why you don't want me walking you to homeroom Spellman,” he says with a wink, prompting Sabrina to quicken her step so she can enter the classroom before Nick.

She slides into the classroom and finds her way to sit next to Roz and Harvey at the side of the room. A few moments later, Nick comes in and joins a few other football players in the back. 

A few minutes of socializing later, the bell rings and announcements blare over the intercom speakers. Principal Hawthorne’s monotonous voice managing to make exciting events like homecoming and student elections sound like a late night infomercial.

At the mention of student elections, some of the guys surrounding Nick begin to drum on the table, hyping him up while being oblivious to Ms. Wardwell’s entrance.

“Boys, _boys_. Quiet down, this is homeroom, not band practice,” she scolds before taking her seat at the front of the room and starting roll call.

Sabrina looks over at Nick, his friends crowd him like loyal disciples. 

Despite the fact he’s only a sophomore, Nick somehow managed to earn the position of captain on the football team this year. A rank traditionally reserved for upperclassmen, Nick Scratch was proving himself to be a leader in every sense of the word. A star player his freshman year, he’s taken over the title of Quarterback now that Harvey’s brother Tommy, has graduated and gone off to play for Notre Dame on a full athletic scholarship.

The rest of the day goes on business as usual, The highlight being when Harvey and Sabrina snuck off during study hall to go make out in his car for a bit.

Harvey offers to hang around school and drive her home but she has to dismiss him given her dress shopping obligations.

She heads through the hallway towards the gym, when she runs into Nick making posters with his friends before football practice,

“Running for Student Body President?” Sabrina questions, noticing how he’d perked up upon hearing the announcement during homeroom.

“I’ve been toying with the idea, but I’m not sure I can win on my own,” Nick answers in a rare display of insecurity.

The guys around him oblivious to their conversation, continuing to make posters.

“You’re captain of the football team, and a decent guy. I’m sure you’ll sweep it,” Sabrina says, attempting to encourage him.

“Would you consider running with me? You’d help me balance out the ticket... ”

“Balance out the ticket?” she asks skeptically, an incredulous smile on her face, Nick gets up and guides her away from the group, hoping for a semblance of privacy while talking to Sabrina.

“You know… I cover the athletes, most guys, pretty much all the girls...” He says with a cocky grin before continuing, “and you would help me win over the rest of Baxter High’s male population, and the fine arts kids who don’t feel like they can relate to me.”

“Wow it must be so hard being a popular jock,” Sabrina teases, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“With you cheering me on, it’s not that hard Spellman.”

“I’m not cheering just for you Nick, it’s for the entire team. Besides, I like cheer. If anything, it makes Baxter High seem a little more tolerable. School spirit and all,” she admits.

“Well, when I’m playing. All I have to do is think of you cheering me on and that’s all I need,” he flirts and she backs away from him, worried that if she stays talking to him any longer his charms with make her say something stupid.

“I have to go change,” she says, awkwardly butting out of the conversation and heading towards the locker room. 

Her heart slightly racing at the interaction, she changes into spandex shorts and the matching Baxter High Cheer t-shirts they all wear. Tying her hair up into a high ponytail before heading into the gym.

She joins some of the other girls who are already on the ground stretching, all of them having gotten to the gym early to avoid the wrath of Prudence.

Once their _head bitch in charge_ arrives, practice becomes much more structured. Everyone working on tumbling, then stunt moves, and finishing by working through their routines for the upcoming pep rally and homecoming game. 

By the end of practice, soreness is setting in and the last thing she wants to do is go dress shopping. After showering off, she heads back into the gym to reconvene with the other girls. Not particularly in the mood to gossip with them, she sits on the bleachers and briefly texts with Harvey until she’s interrupted by some guys from the football team who approach her. She recognizes them as Seth, Carl, and Ed from the party, but doesn’t bother to greet them as such.

“Hey Sabrina, our boy Nick really seems to like you,” Carl starts and Seth smacks his arm.

“Real smooth way to go about that Tap,” Seth says clearly annoyed with his attempts.

“ _Anyways_ , you should give him a shot,” Ed suggests.

Sabrina furrows her brows at the boys in front of her, “your _boy_ Nick didn’t mention that I have a _boyfriend_ ? _who I’ve been with for over a year now?_ ” she questions.

“Oh shit,” Tap says, feigning shock.

“Good fuckin’ job Tap,” Ed says with a rough shove, clearly annoyed that he made them all look stupid.

“She was stag at the party and Nick talks about her like she isn’t in a relationship!” he defends his decision. 

Sabrina watches their exchange all wide-eyed, but Seth seems to be more level headed than the others and attempts to justify the whole conversation, “well, if things don’t work out with you and your boyfriend, Nick’s a great guy.”

Sabrina lets out a sigh and returns to texting Harvey, unable to form a coherent text since she’s still reeling about Nick’s friends accosting her like that.

 _Nick talks about her like she isn't in a relationship?_ She thinks, then finds herself wondering what the Hell they even mean by that.

Once she sees him enter the gym from outdoors, she ignores the fact he’s carrying heavy equipment and approaches him ready to yell, “What the Hell are you playing at?” 

“What are you talking about Spellman?”

“You, sending your _boys_ to do your dirty work,” Sabrina accuses, mad that he’s been pushing her, and now mad that he’s pretending to be naive to the whole situation. He’s standing there, unsure what to say since he’s still out-of-the-loop on whatever Sabrina’s going on about. 

“At the party, you said that you respected the fact that I’m in a relationship, but literally every action you’ve taken since then seems to suggest otherwise. I’m happy with Harvey and I don’t need you sending _your boys_ to sing your praises to me.”

“Sabrina, I didn’t tell anyone to say anything,” he defends, still carrying the heavy sports equipment like it weighs nothing.

Sabrina lets out an exasperated groan and walks off, leaving Nick to mull about whatever the fuck is going on. After he unloads the equipment into storage, he storms into the locker room and slams his palm on a metal locker, making a loud noise that reverberates throughout the room.. 

“What the actual fuck, why are any of you talking to Sabrina on my behalf?” he yells out, addressing every guy in the locker room, until someone rats out Ed, Seth, and Tap.

He walks over to them and slams his fist on the locker again, not out of aggression, but just in an attempt to sober the mood. 

“Which one of you _knuckleheads_ thought it’d be a good idea to talk to Sabrina about me?”

Tap speaks up, “You’ve just always been talking about her, I swear I didn’t know that she had a boyfriend or we wouldn’t have done it…”

“Yes dipshit, she has a _boyfriend_. I’m playing the long game with Spellman, okay? I’m not trying to get her to cheat on her boyfriend,” Nick says trying to clear the air and set the record straight.

“Isn’t she with Tommy’s little brother? He’s pretty soft… They’ll probably break up soon anyways,” Ed tries reasoning, but it doesn’t gain him any favor with Nick.

“I’m not waiting for them to break up, I’m going to seduce Sabrina until she chooses to do it on her own.”

“No offense, but why her? You do realize there are at least ten other girls waiting for you to ask them to homecoming,” Tap says, admittedly the densest of the bunch.

“I’m not explaining myself to you, and trust me _I know,_ ” he says, raising his eyebrows pointedly.

Nick is well aware that he has plenty of girls to choose from for the homecoming dance, Hell he even has a few guys he could probably choose from. This year, he’s genuinely considering going stag to make a point to Sabrina, that he’s hers if she’ll have him.

He admittedly has a reputation for being promiscuous, which he’s sure would have Sabrina second guess his intentions, even if she wasn’t with that Kinkle kid. 

He might be hesitant to admit it if anyone asked, but it honestly isn’t the worst reputation to have, it’s proved pretty useful up until now. Meaning he could get whatever girl he wanted with minimal effort, and that every girl he’d been with was sure to know he wasn’t a _relationship guy_. The drawback being the few girls who were determined to turn him into a relationship guy, none of those having been successful in their attempts.

That is until Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas came along. It wasn’t a coincidence, and it wasn’t by choice. He knew they were witches, which was partially what drew him to them in the first place. Their relationship quickly turned manipulative though, with the sisters utilizing their gifts to mould Nick into the perfect subservient boyfriend they wanted. 

It looked great on paper, the star football player dating the captain of the cheerleading team _and_ her sisters. It got Nick respect from his peers, painting him as a God in their eyes, being able to date three girls at once was a feat for most mortals, especially in high school. 

Nick however, didn’t appreciate the strange looks he got from teachers, the rumors having reached them as well. On occasion he even used magic to sway their opinion of him just so he wouldn’t have to deal with the judgmental glares.

Sabrina sits on a pale pink ottoman, the cheer team decided to go to Sunnyside Mall in their caravan of expensive vehicles. Leaving Sabrina sitting bored in a Nordstrom changing room, the attendant was trying to be nice offering her a water bottle while she waited for the other girls to try on dresses, but she couldn’t ignore the curious glances she kept getting from her.

“I already have my dress picked out,” she lies through her teeth, trying not to draw judgement from the worker. She leaves her be, and eagerly heads off to exchange sizes, clearly excited about the commission she’s going to be making of this hoard of teenage girls.

Sabrina is now completely at their mercy since she had to ride with Prudence and doesn’t have any other way to get home. She wanders off to the shoe section, looking at some different heels that might go well with the dress she hasn’t bought yet, when she’s cornered by Prudence, Dorcas, and Agatha.

“We noticed you talking to Nicky earlier, aren’t you with that _mortal_ boy?” The three of them ask in unison.

“He’s been a pest, and I’m going to homecoming with my boyfriend _Harvey_ ...” Sabrina says until she stops, “wait, you said _mortal._ Does that mean the three of you?”

“Yes _Half-Breed_ ,” they say, Dorcas and Agatha snickering.

“Wait, how did you find out? About me, I mean..”

“We know _plenty,_ we’re sisters after all, our powers amplify each other’s. Besides, a little divination is a necessary precaution Sabrina,” Prudence says, caressing Sabrina’s face in appraisal.

“Your sixteenth is approaching, are you excited?” Dorcas asks.

“I’m a little nervous,” Sabrina admits, since she isn’t exactly sure how things will change after her Dark Baptism.

“See, I told you these Half-Witches are loose cannons,” Agatha says.

"I remember my Dark Baptism like it was yesterday, I couldn't wait to give myself over to the Dark Lord," Prudence reminisces fondly.

“Anyways, back to the subject. Why was _our_ Nicky talking to _you_?” they all ask, while a quirked eyebrow on Prudence's features gives away her distaste at the thought.

“He’s just obnoxious, always flirting. And didn’t you all break up months ago?”

“Yes, but we’ve left our mark. Besides, witches aren’t the committal type. You’ll see after your Baptism,” Prudence says.

“What do you mean by that?” she asks defensively and the three sisters just vanish, leaving Sabrina alone and rideless.

She manages to get back to Greendale by hitching a ride with some other girls from the cheer team. Sighing in relief once she’s back at the mortuary.

Friday comes in the blink of an eye, Sabrina and Roz had gone dress shopping. The cheer team has their routines for the pep rally down to a tee, and Nicholas has just been _Nicholas,_ Sabrina begrudgingly wears Carl’s jersey, so as not to make Harvey jealous. He’s been acutely aware of the way Nick looks at his girlfriend, and he’s 100% not okay with it. He's been replaying situations over and over in his head, about confronting Nick and trying to figure out what his deal was. For a moment he even convinced himself that he could take him on… Then he saw Nick squat three-hundred pounds, which quickly nipped the idea of a confrontation in the bud.

They have their morning classes as usual, but following lunch their afternoon classes are cancelled for the pep rally in the gym. Cheer team obligations requiring that Sabrina skip lunch in order to help set up the gym.

They’re all lazily hanging streamers and getting fun activities set up. There’s also the announcement of candidates running for student government, which Sabrina is still internally debating. 

After their casual conversation, Nick had extended a formal invitation for her to be his running mate, Sabrina was surprised that he was actually serious about it. She’s been running the idea through her head lately, it’d look good on college transcripts but other than that it’d just take up her time, meaning she’d have less of it to spend with Suzie, Roz, and Harvey.

On the other hand, when Nick toned down his incessant flirting he actually proved to be a really good friend. The meetings were only once a week, and if they won it’d mean that she’d be able to help organize school events, and have a voice to provide input on things that actually affected her.

Once she gets to the gymnasium, she sees the bleachers have been pulled down, and Nick is across the gym helping one of the AV Club kids get the speaker system set up.

“Testing… Testing… ”

She walks towards him, and once he meets her gaze a big smile overtakes his features.

“Testing… Here comes the beautiful Sabrina Spellman… Testing,” her eyes widen and she smacks his arm when she reaches him. Knowing that Harvey would be incredibly uncomfortable if he’d overheard that.

“I thought about your proposal...” She starts and he’s on the edge of his seat, listening intently to whatever she’s about to tell him.

“And the idea of a Scratch/Spellman ticket isn’t the worst thing you’ve come up with...” she admits. 

He looks at her like she just told him he won a million dollars, “Ladies and Gentleman, I am pleased to introduce my VP, Sabrina Spellman.”

She laughs as he announces that over the speaker system, meanwhile the socially awkward AV Club kid Melvin takes the microphone from him, “I’ll take that now that we know it’s working.”

“Vote for me,” Nick says to Melvin with a wink, _God he flirts at anything with a pulse._

“You ran this by Harry?”

“No I didn’t run it by _Harvey,_ but I make my own choices…. _and I know you know his damn name Nicholas!_ ” Sabrina snaps uncharacteristically and Nick steps back, seeing that he’s hit a sore spot with her.

“Sorry, Spellman,” Nick says.

Sabrina looks around making sure that no one could overhear them and that the Microphone isn’t in their vicinity.

“I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while… I know you’re a warlock Nick,” Sabrina says, catching him off-guard.

“What? How did you find out? Nevermind-” Nick starts then goes off starting the incantation for a memory wiping spell.

“Don’t pull that on me Scratch. I saw your witches mark at Billy’s party,” Sabrina continues.

“So if you recognized my witches mark then that means...”

“Yes,” Sabrina acknowledges.

“And you know about Prudence and Aga-”

“Yes.”

“Sabrina, this is all the more reason we should be together. A witch and warlock, the way it _should_ be,” he says but Sabrina cuts him off.

“I _love_ Harvey,” she insists, not even having told the boy in question.

Nick feels like the wind is knocked out of him, until he eagerly changes the subject.

“Wait, so Edward Spellman is your father?” Nick asks curiously, a new excitement evident in his eyes.

“For all intents and purposes, yes,” Sabrina says.

“I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection earlier...” Nick says mostly to himself.

“Nick, how do you know about my father?”

“Your dad is revered in the Church of Night. Even though it was very _new_ , his reformation brought about an intense period of flourishing for our kind. I’m actually reading through his journals,” Nick adds.

“How do you have my father’s journals?”

“The Church of Night has an extensive library of magical texts, I’ve managed to get on Father Blackwood’s good side, so I get access to _the Sanctum,_ ” Nick explains with a eyebrow waggle, clearly pleased with himself.

Sabrina looks at him in wonder, “It’s a reliquary of sorts, where they store rare and dangerous texts.”

“Could I come with you sometime, to read my father’s journals?” Sabrina asks, suddenly feeling much more connected to Nick.

“First you have to get permission from Father Blackwood, and that’s only possible _after_ your Dark Baptism _Spellman…_ Then I imagine I’ll be seeing much more of you, at Black Mass, the Academy Library, all in addition to Baxter High,” he says, a smile playing on his lips.

“I already get enough of you Nick,” Sabrina says with a forced eye roll, feigning annoyance at how smug he’s acting.

“This is _wicked_ ,”  Nick animatedly proclaims, knowing that his plan to seduce her into his arms is going to be much easier now that there’s this fundamental divide between her and Harvey’s very nature.

The two of them return to hanging streamers and blowing up beach balls in the school colors to be thrown around the gym.

“Well I have to go change into my uniform…” Sabrina excuses herself in an attempt to leave him..

“ _Wait_ ,” he stops her.

“Wear this tonight,” he requests, pulling a jersey out of his backpack and throwing it at her.

“I have to wear my uniform,” Sabrina dismisses.

“You wear it over your uniform, and I don’t want you wearing Tap’s jersey tonight. He’s an _idiot_ and you don’t deserve to be associated with that,” Nick says in a display of weird possessiveness.

Sabrina gives him a confused look.

“We’re running mates, _remember_?” he pushes, attempting to mask his jealous spell.

Then a look of understanding relaxes her face, while she runs off to the locker room to change out of the jeans and Carl’s jersey, which she’d been wearing all morning.

She speedily puts on her cheer uniform, seeing that almost everyone else on the team is completely dressed.

Prudence stands on top of a bench, addressing the entire squad, “when we first go out we’re going to stand on the sidelines while Principal Hawthorne and the rest of the administration does all the usual pep rally announcements.”

She continues, “After the student body and class president candidates are announced, we’ll do our first routine. Once we’re done, we return to the sidelines and each walk a player out. Then there’s activities and games where the classes compete against each other which we need to be helping with or cheering during, after that we’ll do our final routine and man the tables for last-minute homecoming ticket sales. _Any questions?”_

The locker room is quiet, “ _good_ , let’s do this girls.”

Sabrina follows the trail of girls as they run into the gym, music currently blaring through the loud speakers while Coach Craven acts as emcee. They wave their poms around in the air and attempt to hype up the various crowd sections, which are divided by class.

Principal Hawthorne takes the microphone and attempts to paint this school year as one like no other, full of opportunity and success for all students at Baxter High, but it sounds cheesy and students only clap when appropriate out of obligation.

“Without further ado, allow me to introduce your student government election candidates,” he says and people start cheering. He goes through the candidates for each class’ presidency, then finally he reaches the student body presidential candidates, which Sabrina perks up at. She goes over to meet Nick at the end of the basketball court. 

A nervous weight forms in her stomach and she thinks about the fact she still hadn’t told Harvey about running. She scans the auditorium, but gives up since the sophomore crowd section is just too dense.

Principal Hawthorne reads off a list of names, some of which Sabrina had never imagined wanting to run for a position like this, particularly some kids from her AP Psych class who are probably just doing it for college applications. The only other pair that seems to give her and Nick a run for their money are a beloved senior duo that seem to want to end their time at Baxter on a high note.

Sabrina and Nick share a look, as if saying ‘ _too bad for them.’_  

“Nicholas Scratch and Sabrina Spellman,” their names echo through the loud speaker, and it might just be pride but she swears that they got the loudest round of applause out of all the candidates. Each candidate has a minute to give a run down of their platform, which is honestly just a courtesy, but Nick seems to sell theirs with a type of conviction that makes the crowd go wild, ending on a high note with promises of a killer prom venue.

As they walk back to their previous spot, Nick holds her hand, giving her slight butterflies and a rolling stomach. She pointedly blows a kiss to Harvey, who she spotted while Nick was speaking. It’s her attempt at showing him that this means nothing to her, but if she were being honest with herself, some of the feelings she was developing towards Nick were major red flags. 

Nick runs off to sit with his teammates, and Sabrina returns to her courtside cheer duties. In the moments before the cheerleaders are supposed to take the floor, the Baxter High marching band starts playing fight music.

 _“Fire it up! take control! domination is the goal! Baxter High cannot be beat! Riverdale take a seat,”_ the team shouts doing classic cheer movements.

Their routine music starts playing. The team dances to the choreography in sync, performing a variety of jumps and sophisticated maneuvers. Then the music picks up, indicating the start of tumbling passes.

Sabrina does a round-off back handspring, only having just learned it two weeks ago. 

_“Red and Gold! Ravens let’s go!”_

They continue their cheers and chants before moving in formation to do stunts. Sabrina’s small stature and flexibility nabbed her a position as a flyer. It’s still all pretty new to her so she lets out a huge sigh of relief once they’re done and everything went as planned.

The routine ends and they all head to the side of the gym, each of them having to escort a player to the center, Nick brushes off another girls attempt at grabbing him, making it so he’s the only one available when Sabrina comes to escort a player.

“You think you’re _so_ smooth,” she says, exaggerating her tone a bit causing him to let out a genuine laugh, She takes a second to actually look at his smile, and it’s infectious, Sabrina finding herself unable to fight one off herself.

They eventually separate once she drops him off with the other players, but not before he can pull her to him and whisper, “you look gorgeous in that uniform Spellman, _I mean it._ ” 

She stares at him, mouth agape before running off to hype up the Sophomore section of the gym. They start pulling random volunteers to participate in the activities, three-legged races, duct-taping teachers to the gym walls, all the fun shenanigans of a high school pep rally.

Sabrina tries getting Harvey’s attention, wanting him to do the three-legged race for her, but he’s pretending like he can’t see her. She yells out his name and he gives a brief look before turning his attention to Roz. Prudence brushes Sabrina’s back as she walks past, “ _Forget the mortal half-breed, You’re one of us now._ ”

Sabrina’s heart sinks, Harvey doesn’t even know she’s a witch and yet he’s seemingly ice her out _just_ for being a cheerleader. She imagines what his reaction would be like to finding out about her witch half, something that she's incapable of changing.

Sabrina takes the distraction of the games and activities to approach Harvey in the bleachers. She’s glad Suzie and Roz have some school spirit and are at least doing something, both of them covering the pep rally for the yearbook and newspaper.

“Hey, I was trying to get your attention,” she flirts, smacking his shoulder. 

A normal boyfriend would respond with a loving gesture. Putting their hands on her waist, or giving her a quick kiss, but Harvey just can’t hold back his discomfort any longer.

“I don’t like how he looks at you ‘Brina, I told you how it made me feel that you were talking to him and now you’re running for student government with him?” he asks, acting like he’s never been more disappointed in her than he is right now. 

“Harvey, can we please not do this now? Let’s just go play a game! Make some memories?” she proposes, primarily wanting to finish up the pep rally before having this inevitable conversation.

She isn’t shocked at his reaction. She can’t say that she blames him. She knows that she probably should’ve run the student government thing by him beforehand, but then again, it was a last minute decision on her part as well.

“No, I want to make sure you’re still my girlfriend,” Harvey says sharply, his insecurities manifesting in a rather abrasive way.

“ _Still your girlfriend?_ ” she asks in shock, making it clear that she’s hurt by his words.

“I feel like I’m losing you ‘Brina… You didn't even tell me you were running for student government,” he says, a small moment of vulnerability shared between them.

“Oh, Harvey,” she says, running her hand through his hair in a loving gesture.

“ _Spellman! Get down here,_ ” Agatha yells from the sidelines.

“I really have to go,” Sabrina says, trying to excuse herself but Harvey holds her wrist. 

“But you don’t, it’s just cheerleading Sabrina, they’ll survive without you...” 

“I like doing it,” Sabrina dismisses with a shake of her head, she’s not going to quit cheer over this.

“Brina, will you drop out of the SGA race? Please? We barely have time to spend together as it is with all of your extracurriculars and-”

“It’s not that big of a deal Harvey,” she says defensively.

“Then if it’s not that big of a deal, _drop out,_ ” he counters.

“A formal resignation from a high school election?” she asks teasingly, but he’s not joking.

“I don’t like you hanging around Nick,” Harvey says, and while Sabrina might not be dense to what he’s saying, she chooses not to hear it instead. 

“I’ll see you at the game tonight?” she asks hopefully.

“Doubtful,” he says in a pissed tone, walking out of the gym.

“ _Harvey_ ,” she whines after him with a pout, a dumbfounded Sabrina left to stare at his retreating form.

She doesn’t know why it affects her the way it does, but tears threaten to fall. She runs off to the locker room quickly, avoiding Agatha on the way.

She locks herself in a stall, leaning her head against the door as she silently sobs over the situation she got herself into. She’d just had a real fight with Harvey, and now he’s not coming to watch her cheer tonight. 

_Sabrina and Harvey don’t have fights._

“Sabrina, are you okay?” a voice calls out from the locker room, she recognizes the soft melodic voice as belonging to Dorcas.

“Leave me alone,” Sabrina manages to get out without sounding like a total wreck.

“I would honestly prefer to, but I’m on strict orders to get you out to the gym for the final routine. Normally I wouldn’t care, but people will notice if we’re missing a flyer,” Dorcas says causing Sabrina to wipe her tears with her sleeve and leave with the girl. 

She hopes no one notices her puffy red eyes, and for the most part they don’t. But Nick doesn’t miss anything when it comes to Sabrina Spellman.

The pep rally concludes and a flood of students pour out of the gym’s double doors. Sabrina makes a beeline towards the locker room to change when Nick comes up to her and envelopes her in a hug, not even asking what’s wrong _or asking for permission to hug her for that matter._

She wants to melt into him, but reluctantly breaks their embrace, looking up at him with a sad smile, “I’ll see you at the game tonight.”

The dejected expression on her face causes his heart to break for her a bit, though a selfish part of him still hopes that she wears his jersey tonight


	2. Chapter 2

Approaching the stadium for their warm up, Sabrina has on her uniform, Nick’s jersey in her practice bag. She hasn’t brought herself to put it on yet, first wanting to confirm that everyone else is wearing one as well.

The smell of popcorn wafts from the concession stand and all it does is remind her of the fact she was too sad to eat when got home, instead opting to spend the afternoon wallowing and shooting off a dozen texts to Harvey, none of which got a response.

The marching band and color guard teams practice their halftime performances on the field. The football team, nowhere to be found yet. It’s over an hour until game time, but as always they were early at Prudence’s insistence.

After some time passes, the bleachers start to fill up. Excitement wafting through the air, and at thirty minutes ‘til gametime, the cheerleaders start pumping up the crowd with a variety of cheers. Surprisingly enough, the away bleachers are filled to the brim as well. 

The Riverdale Bulldogs and the Baxter High Ravens have a rivalry of epic proportions. Since the towns are only divided by Sweetwater river, the Bulldogs vs. Ravens games are the most attended matchups of the season. It explains the ridiculously crowded away section.

Sabrina had fond memories of Baxter High homecoming games. Every year since she was a middle schooler, she’d beg Zelda or Hilda to take her. While Zelda never understood the mortal tradition, Hilda embraced it. 

To Sabrina, there was nothing comparable, holding a styrofoam cup of hot cocoa in the crisp autumn air while you watch your team emerge victorious from a nail-biting game. The intense feeling of community you can manage to have with a crowd of strangers as long as you’re rooting for the same end goal. 

After overcoming the wave of nostalgia it brought, Sabrina centered herself. Tonight was the first time she was seeing it from the cheerleader’s perspective, standing on the sidelines, catering to the crowd and the kids of Greendale who lean directly against the fence. 

She finally decides to put on Nick’s jersey, seeing as she’s the only one without one on. Katie notices Nick’s name on the back, and quirks an eyebrow. 

She sends Sabrina a questioning look, “weren’t you wearing Tap’s jersey earlier?”

“Yeah, Nick asked me to wear this tonight, considering as we’re running mates for student council,” she says, attempting to dismiss the idea that she preferred Nick’s jersey over Carl’s, which she did.

“Yeah, yeah. Likely story Spellman,” she teases, more lighthearted and sweet in her comments than the others had been.

_“Let’s go Ravens! Let’s go!”_

She can’t help herself, scanning through the bleachers for Harvey. The crowd is dense though, so she constantly checks, thinking that she might just be missing him each time. She recognizes almost everyone in the crowd, Roz’s family, Suzie’s dad, Hell, even _Mr. Kinkle_ is here. But there’s still no sign of the boy who has her heart. 

The football teams file into the stadium, the Ravens running through a paper banner held up by Prudence and Agatha.

The game commences to an exciting start, with Nick playing strong offense and calling the shots. The Baxter High playbook must be especially good this year, considering the Ravens establish a nice lead over the Bulldogs pretty quickly. Sabrina glances over her shoulder at the Riverdale Vixens cheer squad, their captain having quite the reputation as well. A fiery redhead that was rumored to give Prudence competition for bitch of the year.

They continue on with their cheering and Sabrina can’t get her mind off of what happened at the pep rally. She’s lost in her thoughts, wishing that Harvey were here so she wouldn’t feel so bad about where they stand.

“Sabrina!” she hears a friendly voice call out, turning to see that it’s Roz and Suzie, both with their cameras pointed at her. She tries to put on a genuine smile for them, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

Halftime comes sooner than she’d thought and they’re whisked off to centerfield to do their halftime dance. A brief respite arriving in the form of the marching band’s performance.

Sabrina grabs her water bottle from her bag, taking a slight rest now that the attention is off of them. She’s surprised when the star quarterback is able to break away from his team, coming straight towards her. 

He smiles so brightly, that she can’t help but smile back, despite the glum mood she’s in. 

“You wore it,” he states plainly, to which she nods.

“Ah, so I’m the reason you’re playing so well,” she teases, unable to help herself.

“I told you Spellman, all I have to do is think of you cheering me on and I’m solid,” he says, a cocky grin on his face.

“So, just between us… are you actually good or are you _magically_ good?” she asks with a raised brow and he dramatically puts a hand over his heart.

“You wound me Sabrina, questioning my integrity… No magic involved though, _I promise,_ ” he says holding his pinky out to her which she takes only so he stops doing it.

“You’re coming to our victory party at Tap’s tonight, right?” Nick asks and Sabrina looks at him hesitantly.

“Planning a victory party before the fourth quarter? That’s a risky move Scratch.”

“But you’ll come?” 

“I’m not so sure I’m in the partying mood tonight,” she admits and he looks crestfallen. 

“I’ll drive you, and take you home whenever you want to leave… I promise.”

“I don’t think that’d help my Harvey situation,” she says, nervously kicking the ground with her foot and avoiding his gaze.

“But it might help you get your mind off of things, you worry too much. You can invite your friends too, if you want,” he offers and she smiles slightly at that.

“Go kick Archie Andrews’ ass in the next two quarters, _then_ we can talk,” Sabrina says, a hopeful expression on Nick’s face.

“I’m winning for you Spellman, just watch,” Nick assures and Sabrina giggles at his boyish attitude..

“I’m watching,” she replies, turning back around and setting her water bottle down before rejoining the squad.

Nick held true to his promise, with the game getting a little too close for comfort at some points, the Ravens ultimately managed to pull through with a big lead and bring a homecoming game victory to Baxter High.

Sabrina packs up taking off Nick’s jersey so she can give it back to him, when he stops her before she can pull it over her shoulders, “you can leave it on. After all, I did just help win us the game.”

“Are Roz and Suzie coming?” Nick asks and Sabrina’s taken aback, she wasn’t really expecting him to know their names.

“Yeah, they were actually going to give me a ride to the party...” Sabrina admits and Nick looks disappointed when he hears that.

“My offer still stands,” he says looking at her in a way that shouldn’t make her question whether she and Harvey have officially called it quits, but it does.

She plays it safe and decides to ride with Roz and Suzie, not sure that she could handle being alone in a car with Nick, let alone in _his_ car.

“You looked great out there ‘Brina! I got some really great shots of you and the football team of course. I can see it already, on the front page of the Baxter High Gazette, _Raven’s Crush Riverdale in 59-35 Homecoming Victory._ ”

“Hey are things alright between you and Harvey?” Roz asks, clearly concerned for her friend.

“Honestly, I’m not sure...” Sabrina says softly, her exterior crumbling yet again.

“Oh, Sabrina,” Roz coos, attempting to comfort her. She brings her in  for a big hug, Suzie joins in as well.

“Everything was fine, and then he was just so mad about me running for student council with Nick, and he asked me to drop out of the race, then he asked me to quit cheerleading. I know he’s worried but I can’t exist only for him… I’m having _fun_ doing these things, and I don’t see why it’s such a big deal...” Sabrina says letting a pent up wave of emotion wash over her.

Roz scrolls through pictures on her camera as they walk, squinting at the tiny LED screen of the school-issued DSLR, she finds what she’s looking for and brings the group to a stop. Showing her the screen, “I’m _Switzerland_ here, but maybe this is what he’s worried about...”

_It’s a picture that she took during the pep rally, she and Nick holding hands and looking at each other like they’re the two happiest people in the room._

Sabrina looks up at Roz, “we’re honestly just friends...”

She scrolls through more, showing her a picture from tonight. 

_She and Nick standing at the sidelines while she’s laughing at something he said, the look in his eyes unmistakable for anything other than complete adoration._

“ _Roz_ ,” she protests softly.

“Hey, I’m not taking sides here. I’m just showing you what my camera lense saw… and that’s exactly what Harvey sees as well,” she says pointedly, causing Sabrina to groan, knowing that her friend is making a valid case. 

If she saw pictures of Harvey looking at another girl that way, she’d be heartbroken.

“Roz, do you mind if we take a detour?” Sabrina asks and Roz gives her a knowing look.

They pull into the Kinkle’s driveway, Sabrina going up to his front door alone, knocking before being let into the house.

She hugs him tightly, unwilling to let go.

“I’m sorry Harvey,” she says crying into his shirt, he kisses the top of her head which only makes her sobs grow louder.

“I let my jealousy get the best of me, _I’m sorry Sabrina,_ ” he says, holding her tight until they start kissing. 

While the thought of her friends waiting for her in the driveway drift from her mind, their kisses grow desperate. Sabrina’s quick drop-in turns into a hot and heavy makeout session, leaving them both panting on the couch as they search for each other’s skin.

Sabrina straddles him while he plays with the hem of her shirt, removing her hands from his neck so he can lift it up over her head. He discards the football jersey, throwing it on the floor beneath them. 

For a moment, everything’s okay between the two of them… _until it’s not._

He picks her up, removing him front his lap and setting her next to him on the couch. Sabrina unsure as to why his demeanor changed so quickly, and worried about what he’s going to say.

“You were wearing Carl Tapper’s jersey earlier today, why’d you change into Nick’s?”

“Nick thought it’d be a good idea since we’re running mates an-” 

“ _Of course Nick would think it's a good idea_ . No more _and’s_ , _but’s,_ and absolutely no more _Nick._ I don’t know if I can’t trust you anymore ‘Brina, there’s clearly something going on between the two of you, or at least you want there to be something…”

“Harvey...” she says softly with a tear falling down her cheek.

“I’m not going to sit around like some cuck while I wait for Nicholas _fucking_ Scratch to take you away from me. I’ll make this easier on you, _we’re done,_ ” he says, with a tone of finality.

Sabrina starts hyperventilating, “No, _no, no, no, no._ Harvey, _please don’t do this_. I lov-”

“You _love_ me? Nice attempt at dragging me along,” he accuses with a venomous tone and an eyeroll, getting up and retreating back to his room.

“You can let yourself out...” 

She’s still hyperventilating, in the midst of a full-blown panic attack. All she wants to do is run, but she finds herself frozen to the couch.

A knock at the door brings Sabrina to her senses and she goes to open it, Roz and Suzie both standing in the doorway. They take in her appearance and instantly _know._

“Fuck,” Suzie mutters under her breath.

Roz just takes Sabrina’s hand attempting to move her from the couch but she refuses to move, Suzie manages to get into Harvey’s room, evidenced by the loud arguing going on between them.

 _Great, I’ve managed to tear my friend group apart,_ Sabrina thinks.

She manages to put on a brave face and pushes past Suzie in the doorframe, infiltrating Harvey’s room and locking the door behind her.

“I’m not leaving until we work this out,” Sabrina states and Harvey refuses to take out his headphones to listen to her. She walks over to him, standing bedside. Taking his headphones off herself.

“Harvey, I’ll stop talking to Nick. I can’t lose you,” Sabrina offers, trying anything to bring him back to her.

“It’s not just _him_ anymore, it’s the cheerleading and everything. You’re booked out every Friday night until God knows when, and cheerleading practices, AP class study groups, I feel like you haven’t made an effort to keep me in your life ‘Brina,” he says, the rough facade he was wearing earlier showing cracks.

“I meant what I said earlier, I _love_ you Harvey Kinkle,” she says softly, reaching out to him.

“You do?” he asks skeptically, unable to deal with the constant emotional rollercoaster he’s been riding with Sabrina lately.

“I love you, you’re it for me,” she says staring at him, attempting to gauge his reaction to her admission..

“I wish I could believe you,” he whispers, causing Sabrina to retreat, leaving her boy next door.

The ride back to her house is silent, Roz and Suzie both walk her to the door. Knowing that on multiple levels, everything has changed.

Sabrina’s phone buzzes from inside her bag, a text.

**_Nick: Where are you Spellman?_ **

She considers ignoring it, and just sleeping away her heartbreak, but oddly enough, she finds that he’s the only person she _wants_ to talk to right now.

**_Sabrina: Home_ **

_S_ he texts, deliberately giving a vague response so that he’ll continue to text her. She nearly jumps when her phone starts ringing, _he’s calling her._

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck._ She answers it.

 _“Sabrina, why aren’t you here?”_ he asks, a dull music blaring in the background, he’s probably gone outside so he could call her.

“It’s been a rough night Nick,” she says softly and he laughs from the other side of the phone.

“ _A rough night? We won, get over here and start celebrating with me_ ,” he says, seemingly a little buzzed.

She thinks through it briefly, she could cry for the rest of the night… _or_ , she could get drunk and use Nick as a distraction.

“I’ll be there,” she replies.

Carl Tapper’s house is only a mile down the street from the mortuary, so she cuts through the woods and is there in fifteen minutes.

She doesn’t bother knocking, just walks around the side of the house to the back deck, where she finds Nick, drinking from a Solo cup alone. His face lights up when he sees her, and for a second she feels like she made an okay choice. 

“Hey, why aren’t you wearing my jersey?” he asks curiously, and Sabrina curses herself, only moderately flipping out for a second before texting Roz.

**_Sabrina: SOS. Nick’s jersey is on the ground in Harvey’s living room.. Plz get it for me, thx._ **

“It got hot,” she lies, taking the cup out of his hand and downing the contents.

“You drank all of my bourbon,” he says with a pout.

“I need more of it, show me the way?” she decides, and he escorts her through the party, parting the sea of partygoers until they’re rummaging through the assorted liquor bottles put out on the kitchen island. Sabrina pours herself a (mostly) rum and Coke, and Nick watches on in slight concern. Even by party standards Sabrina is drinking way too much in such a short period of time.

“Slow down there Spellman, we have all night,” he pleds, but she ignores his sentiment, downing the drink she poured, nearly gagging on it. _Who knew alcohol could burn this much?_

“I’m going to do a keg stand,” she announces, Nick’s eyes widening before pulling her back to him.

“Explain yourself,” he demands, Sabrina stays silent, her only response is the way she sassily crosses her hands over her chest.

“I call you, you say that you’re having a rough night, then you show up determined to get shitfaced. Which if I’m being honest I’ve never seen you drink anything vaguely alcoholic. So, _this_ isn’t adding up, what are you dealing with?” he asks genuinely concerned.

Sabrina brings another cup of something to her mouth and turns her back to him, but Nick quickly grabs it out of her hand, setting it down elsewhere. Leading her outside so they can talk in private.

She lets out a sigh as they sink down into the exceptionally comfortable patio furniture, “Harvey broke up with me.”

Nick looks stunned, a smooth talker rendered silent.

“I showed up to his house, attempting to apologize for everything I’ve ever done wrong, and things were okay. Until he saw _your_ jersey. He broke up with me… Because I was wearing _your_ jersey. Then Roz has the audacity to say that she thinks Harvey is justified in his jealousy and typically I’d be more upset, but I can’t be, because I know they’re both right,” she says, her head falling into her hands, and just like that she’s crying again. 

“You couldn’t just leave me alone…” she says softly, tears falling through it.

“You just kept pushing and pushing until I gave in to whatever it is that I did, and now I’ve lost Harvey because of it...”

“Sabrina, _you’re drunk,_ ” Nick insists, a heavy feeling growing in his chest knowing that he’s the direct cause of this pain she’s currently experiencing.

“ _Not nearly drunk enough_ ,” she comments before attempting to stand up and losing her balance slightly.

“I need to get you home,” he comments softly before standing up to help her get her footing better.

“Great, I came here for _you,_ and now you’re making me leave.”

“You really need to sober up,” Nick comments, concerned for her. Popping inside to grab a water bottle out of the cooler, handing it to Sabrina as he returns. His heart has been racing since she admitted she came here for him, but there’s no way he’s going to do anything about it tonight.

“Have you had anything to eat tonight?” he questions and she shakes her head in response.

“Let’s go get you something,” Nick says and Sabrina quirks a brow.

“I’m not getting in a car with you, you’ve been drinking.”

“I had two sips of bourbon before you took it from me and drank it all yourself,” Nick says with an eye roll, somewhat annoyed.

“I’m not risking it,” she states stubbornly, despite her own drunkenness, she still stubbornly adheres to her moral compass.

“Fine, stay here, I’ll find you _something_...” he says, leaving her the deck and going inside, rummaging through Carl’s pantry for something edible, he grabs a bag of pretzels and a glass of water, taking it out to her. It might not be the most filling thing but it should help absorb some of the alcohol.

He hands her the pretzels and water, Sabrina looking up at him appreciatively. He knows that he’s going to have to watch after her tonight, make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.

As psyched as he is about having won the homecoming game, he somehow has a guilty conscience due to learning of her break up. He hadn’t anticipated the mortal breaking up with her, leaving her seemingly devastated. Looking over at her, slowly eating pretzels out of the bag, she’s staring off into space, lost in thought.

“Sabrina, what can I do for you?” he asks, wanting to help her, one way or another.

“You’ve done enough Nicholas,” she says in something close to a whisper, a few tears visibly falling down her cheeks. 

_Fuck._

“You live at the Mortuary?” he asks for clarification, making sure that he’s got it right. Sabrina nods and Nick kneels before her.

“I’m going to take you home Spellman.”

“I already said I’m not getting in a car with you,” she mumbles.

“We’re not driving,” he dismisses, taking her hands and saying an incantation.

 _“Ianuae magicae,”_ and with those words, they’re suddenly in Sabrina’s bedroom, which is a relief to both of them.

“You’re going to get a TUI,” Sabrina jokes.

 “Teleporting under the influence?” he clarifies and she nods, clearly amused with herself. 

He likes that she’s a little more relaxed now, not seeming to be as sad as she was before. 

“I’ll get your jersey back Nick.”.

“I’m not worried about my jersey… _I’m only worried about you._ ”

“Go home Nicholas.” 

Sabrina curls up on her bed and he leaves feeling like it’s invasive to stay as she sleeps. He’s somewhat concerned for her, and decides to cast a protection spell on her, as well as a healing spell, returning her to a baseline of sorts so she won’t have to deal with a hangover in the morning.

She rises early, but doesn’t come out of her room. Ambrose checks in on her, wanting to make sure that she’s alive. He doesn’t push her further than that, knowing that when Sabrina holes up in her room, she prefers not to be bothered. 

It isn’t until dinnertime when a persistent Hilda comes in, having brought a tray of food along with a thermos of tea. All day she ignores the incoming texts from Roz, Suzie, and Nick. The only one of particular interest coming from Roz, who says she has Nick’s jersey.

She stays isolated all weekend, and come Monday morning even Zelda’s Satanic threats can’t get Sabrina out of her room. She stays home, a sympathetic Aunt Hilda calling her school attendance hotline and informing them that Sabrina’s sick with the flu.

Come noon her phone is even further inundated with texts, mainly from Roz who offers to drop off the homework for their shared classes, but a new player has joined the game. Prudence starts chewing her head off, threatening her for missing practice, and any other transgressions she believes Sabrina is guilty of.

Around dinnertime, there’s a knock at her bedroom door, and believing it to be her Auntie she lets out a weak, “come in.”

She doesn’t realize otherwise until she hears him, “Spellman.” 

Usually she’d be embarrassed having anyone see her in pajamas past noon, not having showered either. Today, Sabrina finds herself beyond the point of caring.

“Why are you here Nick,” she says, feigning annoyance.

“I wanted to see you, not even two weeks into the school year and you’re already skipping your classes,” he says playing a different angle than she expected.

“I think I’m going to drop out and be homeschooled,” she deadpans, a bit of her pre-break up personality shining through.

“If it makes you feel better, Kinkle didn’t show up either,” Nick says, unsure why he did so.

“Why would that make me feel better ?” she spits, using him as an outlet for her anger.

After all, he was a key reason as to why she and Harvey split.

“I don’t know… _I missed you_ ,” he confesses.

Her demeanor softens after he says that but she takes a deep breath. Knowing that this is something that needs to be said, “I need to make something clear to you Nicholas. Harvey broke up with me on _Friday_ and that was not something I wanted to happen. No matter what chemistry there is between you and me, I just had my heart _broken_ , I’m not going to be ready for another relationship anytime soon.”

“I’ll wait for you Spellman,” he says, making it evident that he was affected by what she’d said.

“My focus right now is to fix things with Harvey and salvaging whatever is left of my relationship.”

With those words, Nick’s heart sank. He was doing everything to show his interest in her. She even acknowledged that there was _something_ between the two of them. All of this, and she was still hellbent on getting back together with the mortal. Harvey Kinkle had no idea what a lucky sonofabitch he was.

 “I’ll see you around Spellman.”

Nick leaves Sabrina, stuck on her bed, stunned at everything he’d just said. Clearly she was overlooking something important, she just wasn’t sure what yet.

Sabrina returns to school on Tuesday, Nick’s visit serving as a wake up call that she can’t just call in sick forever.

She’s at her locker getting her books organized for her first two class periods, and when she turns to head to her homeroom, she sees Harvey in the hallway causing her to stop dead in her tracks. When he walks past her, Sabrina opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

Harvey ignores Sabrina, Sabrina ignores Nick. That’s how it goes for a while. She gives Nick’s jersey to Billy Marlin, who promises he’ll get it back to him. 

At the Friday game, he attempts to talk to her, but she quickly runs off to the restroom before he can get a word in. His flirtations come to a stop when he realizes that she isn’t speaking to him.

The following Monday during homeroom, there’s an announcement over the loudspeaker. Officially recognizing the winners of the student council election. Nick and Sabrina won, but she doesn’t celebrate. After announcements, she exchanges a look with Harvey, and in that moment, she thinks he misses her. 

After class, she’s cornered by Nick in the hallway.

“Will you please talk to me for a minute so we can at least celebrate this?” he begs, and she notices how much he seems to want it.

“Nick, I-” 

“Skip lunch period with me, we can go off campus, grab a bite to eat somewhere,” he offers and she lets out a resigned sigh.

“I have terms… Dr. Cee’s and I can’t be late for chem,” she says with a warning.

Nick would fist pump this small victory if he wasn’t on thin ice with her.

They drive to Dr. Cerberus’ and Sabrina finds herself pleasantly surprised with his taste in music. Dr. Cee seats them with a curious look, obviously wondering what they’re doing outside of school at this hour.

Unbeknownst to Sabrina, thanks to her blabbermouth Aunt, Dr. Cee is clued into Sabrina’s tumultuous love life, so he feels a little sympathetic for the girl, letting it slide just this once. Nick gets a burger while Sabrina orders a wrap, though neither of them is unable to resist a milkshake.

“I know it might not seem like it, but I’m still waiting for you,” Nick says passively, causing Sabrina’s eyes to widen, reaching for her milkshake to take a nervous sip.

“I’m only keeping my space because I know you were trying to work things out with Harry...”

Sabrina chuckles darkly at that, “if it’s up to _Harvey._ We’re never getting back together… He’s made that very clear.”

“Then why won’t you give me a shot, Spellman? All I want to do is make you happy,” Nick pleads.

“Because then it justifies every reason he had for breaking up with me!” she says, a little louder than intended.

“Okay, let’s take a moment and pretend that nothing of the past three weeks has happened…” she raises an eyebrow in questioning, unsure where he’s going with this proposed theoretical situation.

“On your sixteenth birthday, are you telling him the truth? When you renounce all meaningful ties to your mortal life, do you explain everything to him? How he’s going to age at a normal rate, while you look like a teenager for his entire life… Or are you too scared, knowing that he comes from a long line of witch hunters?”

The sharp intake of breath leads Nick to believe that Sabrina had no clue about the Von Kunkles, he feels somewhat guilty, playing a trump card like that, but he’s desperate for her.

“He’d never hurt me,” she says with conviction.

 “You’re sure of that? I know all of this about you Sabrina, and I want to be with you. Eighty years from now, Harvey Kinkle will be dead, but I’ll still be here waiting for you.”

She shudders at the intensity of it all, realizing that all the issues he’s presenting are things she’d have to ask herself in a month’s time anyways.

“Aren’t there other witches you could spend your time seducing?” she asks in a last-ditch attempt to figure out why he’s so fixated on her.

“You’re the only witch worth my time Spellman,” Nick says cheekily, popping a fry in his mouth


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while for this story! I had a fun NYC trip and now I have an ACTUAL JOB. like an adult job. I'm freaking out. I'm going to make time to write though so y'all ain't got to worry about that!!

If she wasn’t so pissed at the way he was able to get in her head, Sabrina would be impressed at his tenacity. Nick Scratch did a number on her, mindfucking someone to the point of an existential crisis is a feat, and he’d managed it on her in a matter of minutes during their lunch at Dr. Cee’s.

While her body was still yearning for the comfort and familiarity of Harvey, her mind was racing. Her thoughts were bouncing all around, causing a sharp headache.

She didn’t want to admit it, but all of Nick’s points were valid. In a month’s time, she’d be signing her name in the Dark Lord’s book and becoming indoctrinated into the Church of Night.

How the Heaven would she go about explaining any of that to Harvey? Truthfully, she couldn’t. Her absence and witch obligations were bound to cause mistrust between them anyways. No matter how much she wants to be with Harvey, she’s forced to consider whether or not he’d be able to accept her other nature. If she’s being honest with herself, the odds don’t seem to be in their favor.

Nick, on the other hand, has already chosen the Path of Night. He knows exactly what she’s going through and wants to be with her, fully aware of everything a relationship with her would entail.

She decides to distract herself with homework, finding a mind-numbingly boring U.S. History assignment to be enough to clear her head. Finding herself in the midst of the revolutionary war is a brief distraction, but it’s not enough. Her thoughts still manage to drift to the situation at hand.

She can’t figure out what anything means, her priorities are all out of whack and it’s taking a toll on her. She’s obviously biased to her mortal priorities right now, but she’d be lying if she didn’t think that Nick had a point.

He was right, once she signed her name away in the Book of the Beast there would be so much that she’s unable to share with Harvey. There’s still an ache in her chest whenever she thinks of him, the idea of having thrown their relationship out hurting her in the worst way.

Sabrina decides to attend cheer practice, having weighed the pros and cons of not going. Ultimately, she decides she’s more afraid of the consequences than she cares for the positive aspects. 

Prudence raises a curious eyebrow at the incoming blonde, “trouble in paradise Sabrina?”

Sabrina wants to spit back at her, but decides submission is the easiest route for now. Agatha and Dorcas exchange a look, somewhat disappointed that Sabrina’s usually fiery attitude is absent.

Practice goes pretty well, despite Prudence heckling her the entire time to punish her for her absences. Sabrina lands her back tuck for the first time without a spotter, which was pretty significant for her. A clear victory for her in a time when everything else has been such a blur. 

Since she’s not able to take advantage of her usual ride in Harvey anymore, she heads to board the late bus home, but is slowed by the sound of someone running behind her, “Sabrina.”

She turns to face him, “Nick?”

“Let me drive you home,” he offers hopefully. She looks between him and the bus, unsure of her next move. 

Taking the bus would be the emotionally healthy thing for her to do, it’s pretty obvious that she needs some distance from Nick. Everytime she gets close to him her judgement is clouded, his presence affecting her in an intense way she can’t explain.

Ultimately though, the bus takes about an hour longer than she’d like. The stop near the mortuary being close to the last, so she decides to take him up on the offer, for the convenience and practicality of it.

“Fine,” she relents and he has to fight off a smile, reading her mood well enough to know that she wouldn’t appreciate him acting like he won something by driving her.

They get to his car and she realizes that the black Jeep Wrangler she always sees around town belongs to him.

“So you’re the asshole with the Jeep,” she taunts.

“It’s practical,” he defends, gesturing to the back being filled with various sporting equipment.

“My Aunt Hilda thinks you’re a terrible driver, always bemoans the black Jeep who cuts her off in the mornings.”

“It doesn’t help that your Aunt consistently drives ten miles below the posted speed limit. Besides, I’m only a defensive driver, I’m definitely not aggressive like some mortals can be. They make driving an emotionally-charged task because it’s all they have. Realistically, I could just apparate everywhere but the car helps me blend in with the guys,” he explains coolly and now Sabrina appreciates it a little more.

When they get in the car she looks at him apprehensively, “ _You_ drive a stick shift?”

“Yeah, it’s a pain since I don’t drive on the highway much, but I’m used to it.”

He grabs the stick shift and changes the gears to reverse the car out of the spot it’s in. Suddenly Sabrina is acutely aware of the way his forearm muscles flex as he grips the gear shifter, the veins in his muscles more obvious than usual. She has to turn her head away not to stare.

Then his arm reaches back around the passenger seat as he looks over his shoulder to make sure no cars are behind them. She’s internally screaming at the way his muscles look and while she doesn’t typically consider herself to be that focused on a guys physical appearance, Nick was an Adonis in every sense of the word.

Once they’re out of the school parking lot, he rolls down the windows and turns on the stereo. Handing over his phone to her, his music app already opened.

“Put something on,” he says. 

She appreciates the way he’s not doing it himself, the whole distracted driving thing bothers her in a weird way. However, she’s somewhat wondering if he’s going to judge her by whatever she puts on.

She scrolls through his music library before playing ‘Mr. Brightside’ by _The Killers._ It’s mainstream, but still a great song that he obviously has saved for a reason.

He smiles as the first few notes play out through the speakers, “an absolute classic.”

Sabrina’s happy to see that even though he jams out to the song like a dork, he’s still very attentive to the road and everything around them. He drives with a very calm demeanor, his left elbow casually draped over the window, hanging slightly out of the car. 

The mood is significantly lighter thanks to the music, the two of them singing along in the wrong key and just being generally goofy about it. For the first time since her break up, she feels happy and carefree. 

Nick can’t help but notice how sweet she looks. She’s still in her cheer practice attire, an oversized t-shirt with short spandex that shouldn’t be allowed on the grounds of distracted driving. Her hair is still pulled back into a high pony, and he’s tempted to reach his hand over,  to undo the ponytail and free it from the band in one fell swoop.

The slight flush on her cheeks reminds him of why he had a crush on her in the first place. A _Blink-182_ song auto-plays and he considers telling her to change it to something she wants until she starts lip syncing to the song.

At this moment, he wants to kiss her. _So fucking badly._

They arrive at the Spellman residence far too soon for Nick’s liking. All he wants to do is spend more time with her.

The two of them sit awkwardly together in the driveway.

“Any big plans for tonight?” Nick asks.

“Just some homework for chemistry...” she says with mock-excitement.

“I have to get working on that as well,” Nick says and Sabrina can see what he’s trying to hint at. She wants to talk herself out of it. Being alone with him is dangerous, but after the car ride she’s finding herself to be more weak-willed than usual.

“I’m not sure whether you’d actually help or just be a distraction.”

“I can help,” he offers, seeming unsure of himself.

She fights the urge to roll her eyes, “we can work together... _briefly_.” 

“Briefly,” he affirms.

After an hour of the pair desperately attempting to focus on compounds and their bonds, Sabrina groans, “I need a break.”

“I was going to suggest the same, but I didn’t want you to accuse me of distracting you.”

She quirks an eyebrow at him and laughs. She appreciates that he’s respecting her boundaries and actually taking this seriously.

“We never did properly celebrate our student council win,” she starts.

“What are you suggesting Spellman?” 

“I’m not sure… you seem to be pretty good at celebrating things,” she says lamely and he chuckles at that.

“You want to throw a party?”

“Not what I was saying, but a party could take my mind off of things.”

Within seconds he’s already texting Carl, telling him to gear up for a rager on Friday night after the game. His house is almost always empty thanks to the fact his parents are divorced and his dad travels frequently for work. 

“Friday night Spellman, the ball’s rolling,” Nick says with a small smile, happy that she seems to be returning to her normal self. A Sabrina that isn’t constantly riddled with guilt and sadness.

“It’s alright if Roz and Suzie come?”

“You don’t have to ask that, they’re always welcome, besides you’re a co-host of this party, you can invite whoever you want...” Nick assures her, before wanting to clarify the fact that Harvey _should not_ be invited.

“Obviously, there’s one person I’d have an objection to. Though I don’t think you want to invite him anyways,” Nick adds.

Their group dynamic is the most off that it’s ever been. The first time there was a noticeable change in their friend group was when Harvey and Sabrina started dating, both Roz and Suzie had expressed their concern for the fact that if they ever broke up then their friendship would be ruined.

She supposes their initial concerns were valid. given that everything’s weird between them now that Sabrina and Harvey are broken up. Roz and Suzie are tiptoeing around the pair, instead of a cohesive friend group, they felt like children in a divorce. Harvey and Sabrina having shared custody over their friends, Sabrina takes them on Friday nights, Harvey has weekends. 

Homeroom is awkward, Sabrina finds herself staying with Roz and Harvey, despite the fact Roz is forced to act as a mediator the entire time. She actually finds herself wanting to join Nick and his friends to escape the awkwardness of it all, since they seem to be enjoying themselves.

Nick feels a tenseness in his chest seeing Sabrina sitting next to the mortal for the entirety of homeroom. He’s thankful however, when he notices that it doesn’t seem like they’re making much headway. The small ways Sabrina’s been accepting him into her life are great, but he doesn’t need Harry jeopardizing any of that progress.

The best times he has with her are the weekly student council meetings, moments during their respective sports practices, and the car rides to her house that have become a fairly regular occurrence. 

Ever since Roz showed her those pictures, Sabrina’s been taking note of the way Nick looks at her. She supposes that’s how Harvey used to look at her, but it’s been so long that she can’t remember if he’d ever done so.

With every longing gaze she’s on the receiving end of, Nick manages to chip away at the emotional walls she put up.

She’s walking to her last class, the halls emptying out as the warning bell rings. An arm yanks Sabrina from her route, and she’s face-to-face with him. A soft gasp of surprise escapes through her lips.

“ _Nick_.”

“Your mood swings are infuriating me Spellman,” he says softly, his usage of the word ‘infuriating’ being particularly interesting, because his tone shows he’s not actually mad in the slightest, he seems more desperate than anything..

“You ice me out the entire school day, then the second cheer practice is over, I’m suddenly okay to talk to. Which I’ve been okay with, but it just feels off. All I want to do is talk to you, and hang out during the school-day with you. Sit with you at lunch, hold your hand...” 

“I’m being cautious, I don’t want to piss Harvey off,” she admits softly.

“You still love him...” he realizes.

“I’m done mourning the loss of my relationship, but I don’t want to be insensitive about rubbing whatever _this is_ in his face.” 

“So you’re admitting _this_ is something?” he asks hopefully taking her hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“I really need to get to my class...” she says, slipping away from him.

The Ravens win their game against Sunnyside, the Friday night party becoming an amalgamated celebration. He’d offered Sabrina a ride to the party, but she dismissed him, saying that she had some things to take care of beforehand. 

He was uncharacteristically nervous. Worried that she might stand him up, and not even attend a party that came to exist on her suggestion.

His breath is involuntarily taken from him when he sees her walk through the doorway. Clearly having taken the time to clean up between the game and now. His heart skips a beat when he realizes he’s the first person she’s walking to greet.

“You look stunning, I mean seriously, I’m stunned,” he says genuinely, causing that adorably coy smile to grace her features.

“Thank you, Nick.”

“Can I get you something to drink?” he offers, she quirks an eyebrow in response but takes him up on the offer. Happily accepting the rum and Coke he gives her.

The party is much more crowded than the previous one, music blaring at an ungodly volume. It’s colder outside, so mostly everyone is inside of the house. Save for the stoners who were warned not to smoke inside.

Nick and Sabrina make their way to the finished basement, which is somewhat like a party in a party. If upstairs was an actual party, the basement was an intimate gathering of people they both actually knew. A few football guys are shooting pool and attempting to act more interesting than they are to show off to the female spectators.  Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas are all spread out on the sectional like a sensual renaissance painting, causing Sabrina to feel more self-conscious at the fact she’s with Nick right now. 

Nick senses the change in her demeanor, and attempts to fix it. 

“We can go back upstairs if you want?” he whispers to her.

“It’s fine down here,” she assures him, and herself.

They sit down over with everyone else, playing a risqué game of _never have I ever._ Prudence is ruthless with the sexual ones, seemingly attempting to out Nick for everything they’ve done together. Everytime Nick’s sexual past is called into question, Sabrina takes a sip of her drink. Annoyed when she sees the bottom of her cup, she gets up to refill it at the fridge downstairs, grabbing a spiked lemonade instead. If she’s going to survive the night, she needs at least a little bit of liquid courage.

“Your turn Sabrina,” Prudence taunts.

“Never have I ever… lied about being in love,” she states, curiously glancing at Nick. Relieved when he doesn’t take a drink. 

Most people seem to have an agenda with the game, attempting to extract valuable information from their peers through it. Sabrina never really got it though, anyone could just lie about whatever they wanted, and given that most of the admissions were pretty personal, it’s not like anyone would be able to contest it.

It goes on for a bit, and Sabrina finds herself feeling hazy at how much she drank from the game. She excused herself for some air, and Nick followed after her. 

“I don’t know how much I like parties,” Sabrina confesses.

“Mortal parties are a lot of the same thing… drinking… stupid party games… relationship drama...” Nick says, relating to her.

The two of them are alone on the back patio, Nick gives her his hoodie without her even mentioning that she’s cold. 

“This is the most enjoyable thing about the party,” she says softly.

“Agreed.”

They sit together on the loveseat, music humming in the background. She rests her head on his shoulder, and he pets her hair softly. A curious expression on her face, she turns her head to look up at him. She sits up straighter, touching his face with her hand.

She’s almost in disbelief at the look he gives her, a loving gaze that could make any heart melt. She feels his jaw clench under her touch, like he’s trying to restrain himself. 

“How would things be… _if_ we dated?” she asks innocently, wanting to get a better read on him.

“I’d make sure that, in every minute we spend together, you feel like the most important thing in my world, because you would be. I’d help you navigate your journey down the Path of Night, use our connection to bolster your burgeoning powers.. I’ll let you have your independence, extracurriculars, friends… I’ll do anything for you Sabrina Spellman, because then we’d belong to each other...”

She cuts him off with her lips, on his own quicker than he can realize what she’s done. From that moment on, Nick is decidedly addicted to the way his witches mark burns when she touches him. 

He embraces her as well, his hand cupping her face; desperately bringing her lips back to his. Heated and passionate movements overtaking both of their bodies. Their lips languidly dancing against the others. 

He parts her lips with his tongue, and she eagerly accepts it. A familiar warmth rippling through her body, but with a more intense tingling. Every movement electrically charged in a way she can’t explain, like there’s this power building between the two of them, inflating a bubble that could burst if they don’t stop.

She pulls away slightly, he lets out a throaty groan at the loss of her touch. 

“I don’t want to do this here,” she says softly, looking away in the distance for some reason.

She turns to face him, “This is a bad idea Nick.”

He’s speechless, attempting to think of something that he hasn’t already said to convince her.

Her phone buzzes, “I have to go, my friends are here.”

Sabrina gets up and runs off, meeting up with Roz and Suzie in the living room. 

“Hey guys, can we actually get out of here?”

“Sabrina we just got here!” Suzie complains.

“I’m not feeling the greatest and I need to _leave..._ ” She explains, and Roz senses that her girl isn’t just trying to leave the party, but someone in particular.

“Suzie,” Roz empathizes with Sabrina.

They end up at Dr. Cerberus’ and the second they get settled Roz is grilling her.

“Spill,” she demands.

Sabrina looks up from her milkshake, doe-eyed and innocent, “What?”

“You made us leave what looked like the most exciting party of the year, we need to know why,” Roz elaborates.

Sabrina takes a few deep breaths to calm herself and regain a bit of composure, “Nick kissed me.”

Suzie raises her eyebrows in shock and Roz squeals before checking herself, “should we be getting excited about this or are we mad?”

“I don’t know, I told him it was a bad idea, and just kind of left him.”

“Why?” Suzies previously raised eyebrows are now crunched in a confused expression.

“Because of everything with Harvey… and Nick’s a _player_.”

“‘Brina...”

“I just don’t like how divided we’ve been, you guys can’t enjoy having to split your time between me and Harvey. I don’t think getting with Nick would make trying to mend our friend group any easier...”

“Sabrina, you have to face the music. Things are never going to be how they used to be, especially not with Harvey,” Roz says.

“Roz is right. We’re fine with how things are right now...” Roz nods at Suzie's statement in agreement.

“Something I’ve noticed, as a wallflower, Nick seems to be more your type.”

“I don’t have a type!”

“Not in that way. It’s just… you guys seem to fit together better… ah, I don’t know. I mean I don’t think Harvey ever challenged you, he’s always super agreeable,” Suzie states.

“That’s why he’s such a good _friend_ , easy to get along with, doesn’t make a big deal out of things, loyal to a fault at times,” Roz points out.

“Yeah, Nick seems ambitious and a little more your speed, if that makes sense,” Suzie notes and Sabrina’s touched by how perceptive her friends are about things relating to her.

“So you think I should be with Nick?” she asks incredulously.

“I think it wouldn’t be the worst idea, and Harvey’s fine, so don’t worry about that,” Roz adds.

“Do you guys want to go back to the party by any chance?” she asks. Only about an hour had passed and being familiar with the party protocol at Carl Tappers house meant that this party would likely go on for another few hours.

They leave money on the table for their waiter and race off to Roz’s car. Suzie and Roz are both clearly excited to return back to the party they were rushed out of, and Sabrina is on a bit of a mission.

They get back to the house and Sabrina’s determined stride is searching for Nick. He’s not out on the back patio anymore so she fears she might have missed him. She sees Billy chatting up a girl in the kitchen.

“Billy, where’s Nick?” 

“Pretty sure he’s in the basement,” he says dismissively refocusing his attention to his flavor of the night.

Sabrina heads to the basement, descending the stairs and scanning the room for him when he sees Prudence’s hands passing through a set of black curls. Taking in the situation, she also notices that Agatha and Dorcas are also participating in whatever she’s seeing.

Sabrina’s frozen in her spot, despite her wanting to leave at the sight of Nick with someone else, she’s furious at the scene in front of her and is ready for a confrontation at this point.

Prudence makes eye contact with her, as she’s come up for air. 

“Nicky, I think your little _half-breed_ friend might want to join us,” Prudence coos in his ear.

“Yeah she hasn’t been able to take her eyes off of us,” Agatha teases.

“What are yo-” Nick starts with confusion, suddenly sobered at the sight of her.

“ _Sabrina_.”

He pushes the three girls off of him rather forcefully, and gets up. Fumbling to button his shirt.

“Don’t forget your zipper,” she points out before heading up the stairs.

She just wanted to send a message to him, that she saw everything. 

Nick’s able to grab her wrist and stop her, “Sabrina, let’s talk about this. _Please._ ”

“I don’t see why we need to talk about it, given what I’ve just witnessed, you’ve decided to make it abundantly clear that you’re over me…” she shakes her arm to loosen his grip on her wrist.

“ _Let go of me,_ ” she spits, escaping up the stairs and out of the party. Running home and sending a quick text to Roz and Suzie that she left early, so they wouldn’t worry.


	4. Chapter 4

There were about twenty notifications on her phone before she decided to turn it off completely, she groaned into her pillow, thankful she had the weekend to recharge. She wasn’t going to sulk again, this time because there was no actual loss, only a bit of self-loathing for getting starry eyed over what could have been. 

Almost every time she looks in the mirror, she rolls her eyes at herself. Still somewhat in disbelief that she was stupid enough to even want to give Nick a shot. Sabrina was angry, but felt it might be a little misplaced. She was more angry at the Weird Sisters than anything, but there was still a burning seethe directed at Nick.

She longed for revenge on them, mulling things over in her head, she debated enlisting her cousin for help with a hex, but thinks that if she were to do it right now that it might be too obvious she was the witch behind the spell. Worried about retaliation, Sabrina figures that she’ll wait until things cool off a bit and then strike when they’re not expecting it.

She goes about her normal weekend routine, filled with homework, some light spellcasting, and watching old movies with Ambrose.

By the time Sunday evening rolls around she’s ready to sleep like the dead, but that’s all interrupted by a knock at the door, _and_ the fact she hasn’t clued her Aunties in on the fact Nick Scratch isn’t allowed into this house under any circumstances.

“Sabrina, you have a suitor in the foyer,” Zelda yells up the stairs.

She hates that she’s dug this hole for herself, she should’ve just been open with her Aunties and told them no visitors, but judging by the twinkle in her Aunt Zelda’s eyes she would’ve let him in anyways. Zelda is always acutely aware of these sorts of things, so Sabrina has no doubt her Aunt knows his true nature, _Hell_ she’s probably seen him at Black Mass.

She greets Nick with a glare and a cold disposition.

“What do you want?” she questions venomously, not wanting anything to do with him at the moment. She supposes her Aunties aren’t wondering why she’s introducing him, but given the current circumstances, she couldn’t care less about pleasantries.

“I need to talk to you Sabrina,” Nick pleads.

“Okay, fine, we can do it right here then.”

Zelda looks enthralled at the prospect of being front row to her niece’s fury. Sabrina would find it in herself to be annoyed with her Aunt, but she doesn’t have the energy.

“ _In front of your family?_ ” he clarifies, incredulously.

“It’s either here, or the porch, or preferably _not at all._ ”

“It’s freezing outside,” he protests.

“So, begin detailing your whorish escapades in front of my Aunties. Please, we’re all ears,” she taunts bitterly.

Nick opens the front door and holds it open for her to presumably follow, “ _Please_ , Sabrina.”

She rolls her eyes, something she’s been doing a lot of lately, and follows him out to the porch.

“You’re here to beg for forgiveness? Let me guess, they threw themselves at you, because you’re too irresistible, and you were so heartbroken by my running off that you couldn’t keep it in your pants for an hour?”

”It wasn’t my choice!” he gets out through gritted teeth.

“So, if I were to give you another chance, is this what it’s going to be like in the future? You’’ just claim that you can’t control yourself around other girls because you have no choice in the matter.”

“Sabrina, I promise I can control myself around other girls, It’s _the Sisters_ , I was _drunk_ , and they took advantage of that.”

“So you’re just hung up on your exes? Surely, you can do better than that.”

“They were handing me drinks, I was pissed that you just left me there like that. Okay, maybe not _pissed_ but definitely dumbfounded, and a bit dejected. My judgement was affected enough to take drinks from them, which looking back on is something I’ll never do again.”

“So they roofied you?” she asks with her eyebrows raised. 

“You seemed pretty alert when you realized I was watching.”

“You know there’s more to it, Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas are territorial… they probably enchanted the drinks or something.”

“ _Or something?_ That’s an awfully convenient explanation you came up with.”

“For the love of Lucifer, I didn’t jump on them Sabrina! There’s history there and they were offering to make your rejection hurt less… and I was more subject to suggestion in my state.”

“Okay, good to know. If I ever deny you, you’ll just run off to the next easiest option… _got it._ ”

“Sabrina, I _grew up_ with them. I ran to family, just as you did.”

“So you sleep with your family?”

He scrunches his face, “we’re not blood related.”

“Still _gross_ , but whatever. I was trying to sleep before you came barging into my house uninvited.”

“Sabrina, I meant everything I said.”

“Really convincing Scratch,” she replies sarcastically, turning on her heels to head back into the house.

“I’ll be waiting for you Spellman.”

“Have fun with Prudence, Dorcas, and Agatha in the meantime,” she says, slamming the door behind her.

The second she’s back in the house, Zelda has a brow raised in questioning, “who was that delicious young warlock?”

Sabrina lets out a loud groan and runs up the stairs to lock herself in her room for the remainder of the night. 

There’s a light knock at the door, “cous, are you doing alright?”

“I’m fine Ambrose.”

“That’s funny, because you don’t usually lock yourself in your room when you’re _fine._ But if you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll leave you be.”

“You can come in,” she relents, lifting the charm on her door lock.

“What’s going on?” he asks, somewhere in between a giddy high school girl waiting for the juicy gossip and a concerned cousin who only wants the best for her.

“It’s the guy who just came by-”

“You mean the _Warlock_?”

“ _Yes,_ he’s been pursuing me for a while. And is pretty much the reason Harvey broke up with me. Anyways, Friday night I was fully intending on giving him a shot. We kissed and I sort of ran off, then when I went back to find him, he’s already being kissed, by three other girls. _Er_ , _witches_ I guess. He basically cheated on me before he had the opportunity to do it officially, and now he just expects me to forgive him.”

“Wait, he was willing to be monogamous with you?” Ambrose asks interested, now splayed out across her bed.

“Yes, the whole conversation before I left revolved around what a relationship would be like if we were exclusive. Now I realize that was all probably just an attempt to seduce me.”

“Sabrina, you’ll understand soon but you need to know, witches tend to be very open about their sexuality and intentions. He wouldn’t have brought up the idea of monogamy if he wasn’t seriously offering it. If he really just wanted you for what you’re implying he could just bend you to his will some other way, which obviously adds a huge ethics debate to the whole scenario, but it’s the truth. A warlock isn’t going out of his way like that just to sleep with you.”

“Uh, thanks I guess?” Sabrina asks, oddly offended.

“Not like that, it’s just… look at that boy, do you think he really has to try hard to get someone in his bed?”

“That’s the point I’m bringing up though Ambrose, I’d just be another conquest for him. Right now he thinks I’m _hard to get_ , so then if I give in to the idea of the relationship, how do I know he’s not just going to dump me immediately after _that_ happens.”

“Surely he doesn’t plan on getting with you prior to your Dark Baptism anyways, you know that sort of defeats the idea of saving yourself for the Dark Lord. So there’s that as a buffer.”

She raises her eyebrows, he has a point about that. Even with all that’s happened this weekend, she’d be willing to toy with the idea of them dating, especially now that there’s a built in probation period for Nick.

On the other hand, she wants to make him pay. It’s a little uncharacteristic of her, but the thought of torturing him all month has her heart racing excitedly.

Monday morning, she flirts with Seth before homeroom. Asking him what he thought about the cheer teams performance at Friday’s game. 

“You’re really good at football, with those broad shoulders you must be great at defense...” She says, placing a hand on his shoulder and moving down to rub his bicep. 

Nick is just on time too, she feels him glaring at her the minute he enters the hallway. She knows he’s approaching her, but stays focused on talking with Seth to push Nick over the edge.

“Hey Seth, mind if I steal Spellman for a moment?” Seth looks as if he’s about to protest but can’t before Nick’s ushering Sabrina off to the side.

She glares up at him, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

“You’re going to have to choose your targets better if you want me to believe that you’re actually remotely interested in anything Seth has to say,” Nick says.

“Wow, you sure are possessive for someone who _isn’t my boyfriend,_ ” Sabrina states loudly.

“You should just remember, that I know the football team, basketball team, baseball team, and every guy on them. I know the few guys would actually be sharp enough to hold a conversation with you long enough to keep your interest, and believe me. While he’s very _pretty_ , Seth isn’t one of them. So while you might be doing all of this to make me jealous, at least make it realistic,” Nick says with a wink before abandoning her for homeroom.

Sabrina huffs before trailing a few meters behind him into their homeroom. Walking deliberately past where Nick just took a seat next to his friends, she doesn’t care how realistic it is, she just wants to ruffle his feathers a bit more.

“Hey Billy,” she flirts with a wink at the jock right by Nick’s side. It wasn’t hard either, she had a bit of a crush on Billy Marlan in middle school, so it might just be _realistic_ enough on her end to get under his skin.

Ed Dursley and Carl Tapper were exchanging bemused for the entirety of practice. Nick seemed to have gone off the rails. Before practice, he’d made an announcement in the locker room, warning every guy not to talk to Sabrina Spellman, or that they’d be answering directly to him. It was a large departure from the cool, collected Nick that they’d all come to know.

Billy and Nick seemed especially at each other's throats during practice. Nick was purposefully choosing playbook scenarios that conveniently omit Billy from all the action.

All the guys are showering off after practice, and Billy can’t help but vent his frustration in one of the few ways he knows how; false bravado.

“I can see why he’s mad, Spellman has had a thing for me since like sixth grade. Then she just settled for that Kinkle dude and nothing came out of it. Now that she’s single again I can see why Nick feels threatened. I don’t get why he’s acting like they’re together though, let her choose. Then we’ll see who comes out the winner,” Billy says to a lot of the guys, who don’t reply, either out of respect for Nick, or fear due to the show he’d put on earlier.

Nick hears this as he walks into the locker room, not wanting to get into a physical altercation, he just hexes him so that he slips a few times trying to leave the showers. Admittedly, it’s petty, but maybe it’d humble him enough that he’d shut up.

Walking out to his car he spots Sabrina waiting for the bus, “need a ride Spellman?”

“No thanks. I was just going to take the bus… _Or,_ maybe I could just ask Billy to give me a ride in his truck.”

“You could’ve stopped after no thanks,” Nick comments dryly.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Are you really going to take the bus?”

“Did you kiss the Weird Sisters Friday night or am I just imagining that?” she asks in a faux-innocent tone that gets her message across.

The week goes by like that, Sabrina being the incessant flirt Nick was always alleged to be, Nick getting unreasonably angry over the whole thing, then Sabrina toning it down just a bit on occasion to make sure Nick doesn’t set the school ablaze in a jealous episode.

Student council on Thursday was borderline insufferable. With Sabrina and Nick constantly rifting with each other. Anything Nick suggested, Sabrina would propose the exact opposite, regardless of whether it made any sense.

The topic of this year’s prom theme came up. Sabrina the most animated of the student council on the matter, “how about Heaven on Earth, ethereal lighting, clouds everywhere, white gates and arches… or _Stairway to Heaven_?”

Nick rolls his eyes, “I’ll take your _Stairway to Heaven_ , and raise you _Highway to Hell._ ”

Alana, the Junior class president interrupts, “well, this might be the only positive thing to come out of your infighting… Prom theme this year; fire and ice, any additional thoughts?”

“No, I specifically asked for _Hell_ ,” Nick protests.

“Why would anyone want their prom theme to be based on purgatory Nicholas?” Sabrina says, looking at him like he’s crazy.

“God, I don’t even know why we let Sophomores have an input on this!” Alana exclaims, clearly exasperated at the bickering taking place.

“I’m Student Body President, remember? Not just limited to a single class like you are,” Nick retorts, sounding snarky for the first time Sabrina’s witnessed today. She lets out a small chuckle at his pettiness, but nips it in the bud before he can interpret it to mean anything.

They move onto other matters, with the rest of the meeting being more civil than beforehand. Nick and Sabrina leave together, their mood having shifted slightly at the forced compromise.

“Walk with me?” Nick asks and Sabrina relents, walking by his side.

“A Hell themed prom, _for mortals_?” she questions with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s not too far fetched Spellman, mortals like their vices and sins, it’d be playing off of that. Besides, I thought by then this would all blow over and we could go as Lucifer and Lilith,” he purrs flirtatiously.

“Underclassmen don’t go to prom Nick.”

“But we have student council privilege, being obligated to bear witness to the event we create...”

“When it all blows over _huh_?” she asks skeptically.

“This isn’t going to go on forever, you and I both know that. I must admit though, you’re quite the opponent Spellman. Fighting with you like that really gets the blood flowing,” he teases.

She swallows a lump in her throat, and though she hates to admit it, Nick is right. She’s been pretty riled up from their constant disagreements that they seemed to be having just for the sake of conflict.

“Nick, stay away from the Weird Sisters,” Sabrina says, looking up at him softly.

“What?” he asks puzzled.

“Stay away from the Sisters, for me...” she repeats. Nick nods his head in agreement and understanding.

“I will, but who exactly do you think you are to be making requests of me like this Spellman?” Nick asks and Sabrina answers, wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and pulling his lips down to meet hers. 

“ _Oh,_ ” he says against her lips. Continuing their fervent kiss, with increased desperation. Only pulling away at the booming baritone yell of Coach Craven bouncing off the lockers. 

“Scratch, find someplace to be,” Coach says, addressing only Nick.

They run off to the library and kiss for a bit on the couch in front of the fireplace. With his large hands firmly planted at the base of her neck, she pulls away reluctantly.

“What are we doing?” she questions.

“ _Reconciling_?” he answers hopefully.

“Okay, I can work with that...” she murmurs softly, looking up at him.

“Let me take you out, does Saturday night work?” 

“Sure, what’d you have in mind?”

“That’s a surprise Spellman… oh, and one more thing, wear my jersey tomorrow?“

She nods and he plants a kiss on her forehead, petting the back of her head.

“Well, let’s get going, I know how you care about your grades and everything...” he says trailing off.

“And you don’t?”

“I took calculus like two decades ago, didn’t have a problem with it then, don’t struggle with it now...” he says cooly and Sabrina’s looking at him in shock. 

Putting puzzle pieces together in an attempt to calculate Nick’s age, she was familiar about the whole slowed aging thing that their kind experienced. After all, her aunties are nearing a millennium on this earth, and Ambrose is a few centuries old now. 

“Why so surprised?”

“I just figured that witches wouldn’t do that sort of thing, engage in mortal delights, especially if you’re like _old._ My cousin Ambrose is close to two-hundred and he doesn’t attend school.”

“If I’m being honest, the Sisters and I ended up here on a probationary period. One necromantic ritual with a classmate gone wrong and Blackwood was ready to expel us. We’re mainly here because there’s nothing better to do for the time being until Blackwood cools off.”

“Expel you?”

“From the Academy of Unseen Arts. Surely your Aunts have told you?”

“No they haven’t,” She scrunches her forehead, slightly puzzled at this information.

“Obviously, I have no real agency to speak on this. But, I suspect they know your ties to your mortal friends are strong, and they didn’t want to tell you out of fear you’d reject the Path of Night.”

“All witches attend the Academy after their Dark Baptism, it might not be Witch Law but no one in our coven’s gone against it...”

“Maybe they were thinking it could be a part time sort of deal? After all, I am only a half-witch,” she reasons, not wanting to accept the fact that her aunties could be deceiving her in some way.

“For your sake, I hope so. Once this whole mortal high school thing blows over, I can’t say I’d be upset to see you at the Academy.”

“You know, for someone here as punishment, you really seem to be milking the experience for what it’s worth. Student body president, captain of the football team...”

“Figured that I might as well get the full high school experience, just as you’re doing...” he points out.

“Well, school is the only thing I’ve ever known. This year has just been so different with cheerleading and meeting people outside of my friend group. If I’m being honest, it was pretty nice living in a bubble with Harvey, Roz, and Suzie. I never had to worry about anything, but even though there’s so much I don’t know now, it’s worth having these new experiences… _I think._ ”

Friday comes with a vengeance. Sabrina wearing Nick’s jersey over her uniform to school, a tradition that all the cheerleaders partake in to show their school spirit on game days. Harvey glares at her throughout their homeroom period, feeling like he was completely justified in breaking things off with her now. His worst fear has come to fruition and it reopens an old wound in a way he wouldn’t think possible except for the fact he’s experiencing it right now.

The school day comes to a quick end, no cheer practice meaning that they were free to roam as they wish for a bit, but it wasn’t exactly worth leaving the school since their away game was a few towns over, meaning about an hour long bus ride for the teams.

Some people left campus briefly, running off to the local convenience store or food place to grab snacks for the ride. The respective coaches were always pretty strict about the intermingling of the teams, thinking that shoving hormone-driven teens on a bus together was a big no-no. For some reason though, they were lenient today, and after seeing the self-satisfied smirk on the Weird Sisters’ faces, Sabrina knew exactly why. 

They were approaching her fast as she drew near the buses, and Sabrina had her fists clenched, ready for a less than pleasant confrontation, when Nick intercepts the pass. Effectively stopping the Weird Sisters in their tracks.

“Hey Spellman,” he says with one of his usual charismatic smirks.

“So you’re going to win tonight?” Sabrina asks with a quirked eyebrow.

“I don’t know how you could expect otherwise,” Nick defends with a chuckle, placing a hand on her waist and holding her steady.

“Well you better, otherwise I might reconsider going out with you tomorrow,” she teases and he melodramatically places a hand over his heart, feigning hurt.

Everyone starts boarding the bus, Sabrina deciding to embrace the football and cheerleader integration. She walks in front of Nick through the aisle of the bus towards the back. Nearly knocking a shaker bottle of a protein smoothie out of a large jocks arm.

Sitting together in the back is nice, though they’re in tight quarters since the teams equipment forces them to squish together tightly. Nick doesn’t protest as she leans into him, an unfamiliar sensation causing his stomach to do backflips. _Was he nervous?_ He wasn’t sure, he’d never been nervous about a girl before. Every previous anxiety that plagued him always stemmed from a place of discomfort, but this wasn’t discomfort as much as it was uncertainty. 

While he’d go out on a limb and say that things were going great currently, one wrong move and Sabrina could turn on him in an instant. So when she snuggled into the crook of his neck he was just glad she felt comfortable enough with him to do so, despite the awkward hurdle brought on by Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas.

Before he knows it, Sabrina’s sleeping on his, and his heart skips a beat at the sight. 

“Aw Nicky, how adorable. Cuddling with the virgin? What restraint you have,” Prudence teases, the trio walking back to them, despite the fact that all of the seats are full.

Agatha and Dorcas flirt with a few players around them, “Mind if we sit boys?”

They proceed to just sit in the guys laps, Nick rolls his eyes, knowing that most of the guys on the football team are in agreement that the Sisters are ‘complete babes’ and would probably let them do whatever they wanted to them, no mind control required.

“You know, we have a feeling about her,” Dorcas says softly, implying that it’s one of their premonitions, but Nick honestly doesn’t trust a word out of their mouth knowing their dislike for Sabrina.

“She seems much more aligned to the Path of Light,” Agatha remarks.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t take her Baptism...” Dorcas raises.

“I can’t believe you’re putting up with her, no sex until then? I don’t know how you’ll survive Nicky...”

“Do you always have to be such a bitch Pru?” he questions softly through gritted teeth, not wanting to stir Sabrina from her peace.

“I don’t know, why do you always have to be an insufferable warlock slut?”

“ _This_ won’t last long…” she says with an eye roll, leaving to return to her original spot a few rows up her sisters following in her path.

As the bus approaches their destination, Nick has to wake Sabrina. Finding her post-nap sleepiness to be incredibly adorable.

“Are we there?”

Nick shakes his head, “no, but you were using my arm as a pillow and I need to get up.”

She nods in understanding and pulls her legs into her chest as Nick gets up and walks the bus aisle. Giving a motivation pep-talk to hype the team up and keep the energy level where it needs to be. Coach Craven was driving separately but the assistant coaches at the front of the bus started going over the playbook. The mood of the enclosed space grows serious, as the players are attempting to get focused and in the right headspace for the game.

Once they arrive at the rival school, the mood is different. An anxious excitement courses through Sabrina, while the stakes are less for her, it’s always nice when they win. Rides home after victories are always a little more lighthearted and relaxing.

Sabrina reconvenes with the cheer team, making sure they have everything needed. Prudence gives her usual run down of what cheers, routines, and chants they’ll be doing. The sisters are colder to her than usual, clearly put off by the fact that she seems to have forgiven Nick despite their measures to drive a wedge between them.

The weather was actually beginning to feel like fall now, with temperatures dropping a bit in the evening for nighttime games like this. The constant movement and activity helped to combat the chill, but by the end of the game most of the girls were freezing. Prudence was adamant about the team staying in their outfits instead of slipping their warm-ups over them. 

The game was close, but they did end up winning against one of their divisions most competitive teams. It was impressive to begin with, but the fact it was an away game really solidified the win for Baxter High. 

Spirits were high and the football team took their time, taking full advantage of the visiting team locker room to clean up before heading home. Sabrina gets two styrofoam cups of hot apple cider from the concession stand before running to meet up with the rest of the cheer team. Prudence briefly scolds her for drinking calories before they head on the bus. Waiting for the boys to return so they can head back home. Despite having a hot drink in each hand, Sabrina is still shaking slightly. Having pulled her sweatpants on over her uniform the moment she got back on the bus. The football team slowly fills the bus again and Sabrina is concerned when the bus is nearly filled but there’s still no sign of Nick. 

Thankfully, he’s the last one on the bus, with coach Craven giving an approving pat on the back before pushing him up onto the vehicle. He’s dressed down now, in joggers and a sweatshirt. 

“Not sure how hot it is anymore, but I got this for you.” she offers, handing him the cup.

The once foreign feeling of affection floods through him once again. It was a somewhat new emotion that he’d only been experiencing this past month or so, only when he’s been around her.

He wanted to express his gratitude, trying to show how the gesture had affected him, but nothing he thought of seemed adequate, so he reverted back to his usual.

“Thanks Spellman.”

He took his seat next to her, draping his arm across the back on their seat, so it was somewhat around her.

“That was a good game,” Sabrina states plainly, she could go a little more in depth, but she figures he already knows everything she could tell him.

“Had to do everything I could to ensure you’d still go out with me tomorrow,” he teases.

She rolls her eyes, playfully shoving him, though cognizant that she doesn’t spill her drink. Unable to help herself, she places a chaste kiss on his cheek, Nick unable to fight the smile she causes.

“Well I’m glad you won,” Sabrina says, leaning into his chest. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this update y’all can thank Gavin Leatherwood for his Instagram response to the question; ”Perfect Date in Greendale?” 
> 
> “A nice long walk to Baxter high, break into the school, get up on the roof with a blanket and some candles, and watch the stars have deep personal conversations with each other.”

Nick was planning for a while, trying to make their date as memorable as possible. He’d considered using magic for a variety of things, hoping it’d go over well, but for some reason he managed to talk himself out of it every time.

He wanted to show Sabrina he liked both sides of her, and not just the magic side he was comfortable with. Despite having made up, he couldn’t help but feel like he was still on a probationary period with her, given what happened in Carl’s basement, so he wanted to really show he was making an effort.

He arrived at the Mortuary, only a few minutes before he said he’d be there. As he walks up to the front door, it opens without him even having to knock. 

“So you’re the warlock pursuing my niece?” Zelda Spellman questions, immediately appraising him in an effort to determine whether he’s worthy of entrance to their family home.

“Come in,” she gestures, and though it isn’t a hospitable welcome, it’s not a cold one either.

“Thank you, Sister Spellman.”

“I’m hearing my niece has second thoughts about taking her Baptism,” Zelda says before taking a sip out of an ornate teacup.

“I can assure you I have nothing to do with putting such thoughts in her head,” Nick says in defense of his character.

“I know that,” she scoffs, as if it were obvious. 

“it would help if you could push her a little further along in the process, so she’s less... _hesitant_. That mortal boy didn’t do her any favors and I’m unwilling to subject the Spellman name to further controversy,” Zelda states plainly.

“I’ll try my best,” Nick says in an effort to end the topic of conversation, knowing that it’s not necessarily something he thinks Sabrina would care to overhear.

Hilda and Ambrose are practicing self-restraint in the kitchen, trying their hardest not to pounce on Sabrina’s date. Instead, opting to chatter amongst themselves.

When Sabrina comes down the staircase, the usually charismatic and suave Nick Scratch is left speechless. 

It’s a normal choice of attire for her, but she looks stunning regardless.

As she takes in his reaction, Sabrina can’t fight off the heat rushing to her cheeks.

Nick greets her with a whisper, and she’s suddenly giddy at the fact what he’s saying is for her ears only, “you’re breathtaking Spellman.”

“If you bring her home before eleven, don’t expect a second date Nicholas,” Zelda warns. Nick raises his eyebrows awkwardly, somewhat surprised at the subversion of social conventions but manages to play off his surprise with an easy chuckle.

“Midnight it is,” he says cooly and Sabrina beams at him.

“So where are you taking me? I tried guessing for a bit so I could figure out what to wear, but I didn’t want to overthink it to the point of not being surprised...”

“You’re rambling Sabrina,” he states, clearly amused.

“Am I?”

“Yes, and as cute as it is, you don’t have anything to be nervous about. If anything, I should be the one worrying about how perfect I’m attempting to make this night for you.”

She anxiously chews her lower lip before meeting his gaze, “it’s already pretty perfect, Nick.”

“I hope you don’t mind walking a bit, this is your last chance to run inside and change your shoes,” he warns.

“I’m fine, thanks for caring though,” she says with a smile, Nick was always a little more thoughtful than the usual guy her age, most boys wouldn’t even think about the fact heels could  be an issue for walking, but here Nick was, noticing the small things.

“You look nice,” she said, taking note of the light blue dress shirt he was wearing under the black utility jacket, he was clearly trying to dress a little nicer for their date and the thought made her happy.

“I figured you deserve to see me in something nicer than a letterman jacket for our first date,” he says, giving her hand a squeeze before helping her up into his Jeep like a true gentleman.

They drive into Old Town Greendale, Nick impressively proving his competency at parallel parking as they snag a spot in front of Dr. Cerberus’. 

“Dinner and a Movie?” Sabrina questions with a quirked brow, wondering if Nick had gone to Roz for advice.

“Dinner is to-go, and sadly there will be no movie tonight. Though I promise I’ll take you to classic horror movie nights at the Paramount for future dates.”

“You’re confident,” Sabrina teases while she decides on her order.

“You're pretty special, Spellman. I don't wanna mess things up with you,” he says earnestly, causing Sabrina to internally swoon, opting to show her affection by giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Their food arrives in brown takeout bags and styrofoam cups for the milkshakes, they walk and chat along the sidewalk until they’re close to their destination.

“Why are we at school?” Sabrina asks, her face betraying how put off she is by the whole situation. 

“Come on,” he says, beckoning her towards the doors. 

“Nick, we are not breaking into Baxter High,” Sabrina says, adamant about keeping her record squeaky clean.

“You’re right, we’re not,” Nick reassures her as he pulls a set of keys from his jacket pocket, unlocking the door.

Nick chuckles slightly at seeing Sabrina’s flabbergasted reaction. Once she manages to take her jaw off the ground she interrogates him,  “how did you get a set of keys to the school? Who did you bribe?”

“I come in early to train in the weight room before school starts, one of the privileges of being team captain,” Nick says smugly and he’s beaming with pride.

Sabrina rolls her eyes jokingly, “well, you certainly have your ways. But why are we at school? it’s not exactly the most romantic venue for a first date...”

“You’re just full of questions tonight, aren’t you?”

“You’re not a rule breaker Nick... I know, that in spite of the bad boy persona every other person at Baxter High seems to buy into, that deep down you’re actually very cautious and deliberate with the image you put out into the world.”

“Is that so?” he questions with a smirk.

“I also know that you wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize your perfect track record. So tell me, what are we doing in school when we’re not supposed to be?”

“Trust me Spellman,” he pleads before leading them off to some rarely-trafficked stairwell. 

“I trust you, but this stairwell looks like an awfully cliche place to get murdered.”

Once they reach the top, Nick pulls out the keys again and unlocks the deadbolt for a door that’s marked with all sorts of warnings. Sabrina lets out a nervous breath when he pushes the door open, braced for some kind of alarm to go off.

She tentatively follows him out, and when the crisp air hits, she realizes they’re on the roof of their school. She smacks him gently on the arm, “Nick.”

Then she notices a blanket set up with pillows circled with lit candles and she wonders how he managed to pull it off without burning the building down.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispers. They’re above the tree line, and nightfall came while they walked to school, allowing the night sky and the bright moon to be their only light other than the candles. 

“So this is your idea of a perfect date,” Sabrina says in a near whisper.

“I thought it would be. A nice long walk to Baxter High? Break into the school, get up on the roof with a blanket and some candles, watch the stars and have deep personal conversations with each other. Sounds pretty perfect to me...”

They go settle down on the blanket, finally eating their takeaway from Cee’s.

After a bite of her food and some sips of her milkshake Sabrina smiles, “it _is_ pretty perfect Nick, though I think we may have different ideas of what it means to break into a place...”

“I’ll break a window and set off some alarms if it’ll make you happy,” he says with a seriousness that causes Sabrina to break out into laughter.

“I’ll live without all that. Besides, I don’t think Sheriff Landry would even do anything given that it could jeopardize the rest of football season for Greendale.”

They finish their food and set it off to the side.

Nick is quick to wrap a blanket around the two of them and Sabrina can’t help but blush at how attracted she is to him, and how being this close is making her borderline woozy.

“I guess this is where we watch the stars and have deep personal conversations with each other?” Sabrina asks, quoting what he said earlier.

Nick lays down flat and Sabrina follows, settling in by his side.

“Can I ask you something personal?” 

“Sure,” she says, somewhat nervous at what he could ask.

“When did you realize you were in love with the mortal?” 

The air is knocked out of her for a second, and she has trouble formulating a coherent response at first. She takes a few deep breaths and thinks about it.

“I’m not in love with him anymore,” she states, adamant about her feelings.

“But when I was… I think it was the fact that I always felt happier when I was around him, like the thought of not having him in my life was too painful to consider. And I’d just be staring at him, or thinking about him, and there would be something really small or stupid that might otherwise be insignificant, but it was endearing because it was a part of him.”

“I think that’s what scares me the most,” Nick admits.

“What?” Sabrina questions, not quite understanding what he’s going off of.

“I’m a full-blooded warlock with no real family, so my experience with love is rather nonexistent. But I’ve done my research, and one of the things I read was that most people fall out of love for the exact reasons they fell in it,“ he turns to her, the mood somewhat heavier than it was before. 

“It talked about how in relationships, that their partner’s once endearing stubbornness became an inability to compromise, or their spontaneity turns to recklessness, or the way they make decisions without a second thought used to be sexy but down the road it shows itself as immaturity.”

“I think that only happens when people romanticize the idea of someone, rather than getting to know the actual person,” Sabrina muses.

“But isn’t that what happened to you and Harvey? He loved your ambition, talents, and intellect, but that grew to resentment. Your ambition turned into time not spent with him, your talents started making him feel inferior and unimportant, your intellect turned into advanced placement courses that took you away from him. And your beauty was a double edged sword that became more trouble than it was worth, _for him._ ”

Sabrina lets a tear fall. Closing her eyes and pressing her head into his chest so she doesn’t have to face him. He starts running his fingers through her hair lovingly in an attempt to soothe her.

“I’m not going to play this off like I’m your knight in shining armor. I know attempting to pursue you while you were still in a relationship wasn’t the best thing and I’m sorry for how I went about it. But I’m not sorry for how I feel about you Sabrina...”

She sits up and looks at him curiously, prompting Nick to do the same and meet her in an intense gaze. 

He places a hand on her thigh to keep her close, “I’ve never been so affected by anyone else in my life. As soon as we had our first match of verbal sparring in ethics freshman year, I knew I was done for.”

“So your incessant flirting wasn’t just because you liked how I look,” she questions, knowing he obviously wouldn’t admit it, but still allowing her curiosity to get the better of her.

“I am incredibly attracted to you Sabrina, and honestly I think anyone with a working set of eyes is, but I love how smart you are. You also have a beautiful voice, and at the risk of outing myself as a stalker, I came to every show of Bye Bye Birdie because I thought you were incredible in it.”

“There were only five shows,” Sabrina dismisses him as if it’s casual.

“Still, I’d never seen a musical in my life before that, and I don’t know if I’ll ever go to another one unless you’re in it.”

“I like how you were confident enough to correct Monsieur Benoit in French class last year, despite French not even being your first language. Whenever we’d do peer reviews in English I was always taken by how much effort you put into yours, even though I contend that peer editing is a half-assed assignment that no one takes seriously,” he chuckles at that and Sabrina takes offense.

“Somehow you still managed to get a better grade on that essay than me,” she grumbles.

“Only because I had your peer review notes,” he teases and she nods knowing that it’s probably true.

“I also like how you marched up to Prudence on the first day of cheer tryouts and told her off for bullying everyone, and you somehow still managed to make the cut and become one of the best cheerleaders on the team. And I like that you agreed to be my VP, student government would be in shambles without your expertise on spirit week themes.”

Overcome by everything he’s told her, Sabrina swiftly moves onto his lap and initiates a passionate kiss, tugging at his curls a bit, they kiss as if they’re each other's lifeline.

Nick’s lips move from her own to the erogenous Achilles’ heel on her neck that causes her to abandon all rational thought and tug a bit harder on his locks than she meant to.

As the blood flows somewhere between her thighs, she’s reminded of the intense physical attraction they share and she has to pull away before getting worked up to a point beyond redemption. 

With her cheeks flushed, lips swollen, and hair only slightly disheveled. Nick smirks as she readjusts her headband and attempts to regain some composure. The throbbing in his pants only serves as a reminder of how beautiful Sabrina Spellman looks when she loses control of herself.

Nick caresses her cheek with his thumb before pulling her close for a sweet kiss, less heady than the ones they just shared. 

Nick briefly checks the time on his watch, “Almost midnight, let’s work on getting you home Spellman.”

Sabrina watches in amusement as Nick magically puts the candles out and banishes them away somewhere, along with the blankets. 

They eventually get to the car, then the mortuary, and before she realizes it they’re on her front porch saying goodbye.

“Tonight was _perfect_ ,” Sabrina says genuinely and Nick gives her the biggest smile she thinks she’s seen on him.

“I agree, thanks for breaking into the school with me,” he tries cheekily.

Sabrina rolls her eyes at his joke but meets him up in a kiss goodbye. 

“I’ll see you at school Spellman,” he says with a wink, making sure he sees her off inside safely before disappearing off into the night.

She uses a bit of magic to turn on the radio, a soft sixties ballad playing from it, she does a dramatic dance, flinging herself from doorway to doorway and spinning in her stride. She jumps and holds a hand over her heart when Hilda, Ambrose, and Zelda are waiting for her in the parlor. 

“Heavens, you scared me,” she remarks seriously, only mildly annoyed with the smug smirks coming from her family.

“Looks like your date went well, hm?” Zelda questions with a knowing glance.

She considers holding back to avoid their relentless teasing, but her romantic side gets the better of her, and it’s not long before she’s gushing about Nick to anyone who is willing to listen. Ambrose and Hilda are the most engaged, as Ambrose has always appreciated Sabrina indulging him with the details of her love life. Meanwhile, Zelda tries to act as if she’s uninterested but in reality she knows Nick Scratch is a suitable warlock for her niece and is actually attempting to gauge their future together

When yawns start becoming more frequent than meaningful sentences, she excuses herself for the night.

“I wish you sweet, saccharine dreams, cousin dearest,” Ambrose says with a melodramatic wave as she disappears upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quote about falling in and out of love references is from this Tumblr post
> 
> https://imgur.com/gallery/kiiuQ


	6. Chapter 6

Monday morning, Sabrina can’t hide how giddy she is. Nick offered to pick her up and drive her to school in the morning, and she was more than happy to relieve Roz of carpool duty.

“Sabrina, Nicholas is here!” Ambrose yells from the kitchen, Sabrina nearly races down the stairs to get to him before her family can accost him per usual.

Sabrina smiles at the sight of him, he’s dressed in his letterman jacket like every other school day, and he came to the door to get her. She can’t help but melt at the thought he’s willing to put up with her quirky family. Harvey would’ve just layed on the horn until she came out.

Zelda appraises him, looking the young warlock up and down. She nudges her sister, “he plays the part of a mortal well.”

They head out the door to Nick’s car and he’s quick to do all the right things. Opening the door for her. Kissing her across the console. All the little things he does, helping to dissolve any preconceived notions she held in regards to his playboy past.

On the ride to school, he lets her choose the music. There’s a certain awkwardness about the newness of their whole relationship. Nick’s constantly looking over at her, making sure she’s comfortable.

Once they’re at school and parked, Nick is quick to wrap an arm around her, leaving no doubt to onlookers that they’re together.

Sabrina’s a little more self-conscious than usual, but there are definitely more sets of eyes on her than usual, so she figures it’s justified.

Thankfully due to their rigorous course load, she and Nick are together for most of the day. Only separating briefly for when Nick has personal fitness, an elective that student athletes take that allows them to weight train and goof off during the school day. 

Sabrina has art then, and she’s the first one in class as usual. She tenses up when she sees Harvey in the room. He’s talking with her teacher and while they might not be in the same class, it’s weird to see him without anyone else there to comfort her. As he retreats from the teachers desk, he notices Sabrina on the way out. 

She doesn’t miss the sad look he gives her, or the slight shake of his head.

She lets out a deep sigh, trying to focus on getting her project together. Their current unit was on ceramics and she was a little bit of a perfectionist when it came to smoothing out the clay the way she envisioned it. Nothing’s quite turning out the way she wants it to, and she lets out a groan in frustration. 

She tries to act normal when she notices Dorcas heading towards her spot at the pottery wheel, “No offense, but that looks like shit.”

Sabrina raises an eyebrow, internally debating whether or not she wants to get into something with Dorcas right now.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” she agrees with a humph.

“Trouble in paradise already?” Dorcas asks, clearly amused.

“It’s not about Nick. I’m just mad at Harvey,” Sabrina grumbles, wanting to make sure that Dorcas doesn’t start gossiping about her relationship with Nick.

“Why?” she feigns innocence.

“He thinks we broke up so I could get with Nick.”

“Is that not exactly what you did?”

“ _No_ ,” Sabrina fiercely defends herself.

“Well, you’ve certainly upgraded...” Dorcas comments, her eyes wide, and her tone bitter.

“I just wish he didn’t think I was a terrible person… It’s like he’s justified in thinking that because I’m with Nick now,” she says before checking herself, wondering why she’s decided to vent to Dorcas of all people.

Dorcas glances over at the planned sketch for Sabrina’s project before quickly doing some small magic to transform the tragic piece of clay she’s working with to a finished product ready to be put in the kiln.

“Thanks,” Sabrina says sarcastically, annoyed with her for doing that.

“One less thing for you to worry about now,” she says before walking off with a sashay of her hips. 

Dorcas excuses herself and walks out into the hallway, headed to meet her sisters for a quick break outside. Noticing Harvey Kinkle in her path, she gets a devilish idea.

“Harvey, Sabrina said she really needs to talk to you,” Dorcas sings in a sweet voice, leaving before he can get a response out otherwise.

Though he's currently unwilling to deviate from his current path, he figures he’ll find out what she wants from him later in the day.

At lunch, Harvey notices Sabrina mostly by herself, chatting with a ponytailed girl from the cheer team that he doesn’t recognize. 

He decides to approach her, “what do you want Sabrina?”

She looks caught off guard, as if she hadn’t asked for him, “what do you mean?”

“Dorcas said you wanted to talk to me?” he states obviously, and Sabrina lets out a small groan, clearly agitated at the Weird Sisters antics. 

“Lizzie, do you mind?” she pleads sweetly in an effort to get some privacy. Her friend making it clear that she’ll be close by if she needs backup.

“I didn’t ask for you, that’s just Dorcas being _Dorcas_.”

“Okay well I guess we’re done here then,” Harvey says before starting to make a break for it.

“ _But_ now that you’re here…" she starts nervously, unsure of where she's going with her words.

She scrunches her face, as if processing something painful, "I think we should talk things out. I don't mean _now_ , because I’m not sure I could handle it in the middle of a school day...”

“ _What_? Did Nick already break your heart?” Harvey asks bitterly.

“No _Harvey_ , I just still want to be friends with Roz and Suzie and I’m unsure of how to navigate that when we’re like _this,_ ” she says gesturing between them.

“Well _‘Brina_ , I shouldn’t be the one telling you this but since you’re too busy now, you should know that Suzie is Theo now. You’d know this if you didn’t just forget about your old friends the minute you became the Queen of Baxter High.”

She looks at him incredulously, “ _what?_ I still text Roz and Su-... _Theo,_ I just can never figure out whether it’s cool to approach you guys because _you’re_ always there, I can’t just pretend like you don’t exist and try to hang out with them. That’s never what our friendship has been.”

“Well you’ve done a great job at pretending I don’t exist lately… rubbing your new relationship in my face,” he spits.

“I don’t owe you an apology for being with Nick. _You’re_ the one who ended things,” Sabrina insists, getting a little bit choked up at their interaction. 

“I ended things because you were cozying up with him, right after I expressed how you hanging around him made me mad,” he insists, wanting to make sure he didn’t mince his words with her on this topic..

“I offered to stop talking to him, but by then it wasn’t about Nick. You couldn’t stand the fact that I was doing things that didn’t involve you. I wasn’t going to quit the cheer team because you don’t like it, because _I love it_. That’s besides the fact, the point is, I told you that I loved you and you broke up with me...” she says sadly, her bravado melting away as she notices they’ve gathered somewhat of an audience to their little confrontation..

“Then tell me this ‘Brina… Why is it you could only tell me that you loved me, the second you were afraid of losing me. I’ve loved you since we were five years old, and I’ve never second guessed those feelings once.”

“Harvey..“ she places a hand on his arm but he shakes her off.

“ _No_ , we were together for over a year and you never once told me you loved me until you were scared we’d break up...”

Agatha and Dorcas don’t make any effort to hide their amusement at the scene unfolding out before them.

“I’m done with you Sabrina,” he claims with a tone of finality, before shaking his head and leaving the room.

“Harvey!” she yells after him, chasing him down. 

Running through the halls, she finally catches up with him and pulls him aside to a small alcove by the vending machines for some semblance of privacy.

“I want to get this point across because I’m stubborn and I need to make sure you know this,” she holds a finger to his lips to keep him from interrupting her. 

“I loved you Harvey. A part of me will always love you and what we were. You were the best first boyfriend I could’ve asked for, but I’m allowed to change and grow as a person. Roz pointed it out as well, I was getting new hobbies and interests, and everything was happening so fast. But, I like who I am now… and I can’t just go back to being who I was before just to make you happy…” she trails off, her voice getting softer towards the end of her admission.

She’s crying now, but still manages to get her point across while tears stream down her face,“I don’t hate you…. I could never hate you. I miss being your friend. You’re kind and talented, and loyal to a fault at times, but we don’t work like we used to… and I know you feel it too. The jealousy towards the end, that wasn’t you...”

“Brina…” Harvey warns.

“Let me finish, _please_. Nick may have been pursuing me, and I wasn’t blind to it… but please believe me when I say that I was yours up until the very moment you pushed me away…”

Harvey brings her in for one last kiss, holding her close afterwards.

He looks confused and somewhat disgusted with himself for having just done that,  “I’m sorry for that, just needed to get it out of my system... _for good.”_

“It’s okay… Just never again.”

“While we’re on good terms… Are you okay with me asking Roz out? I know I don’t really need your permission and all bu-”

“You’re rambling Harvey,” she says rubbing his shoulders to calm him down.

“and no I don’t mind… It’s a little bit _surprising._ But I’m not going to be bothered by it, or take it out on either of you if that’s what you were thinking... I just want things to go back to normal, milkshakes at Cee’s… horror movies at the Paramount…”

“That would be good, _eventually_ ... once we’re a little more distanced from _all this,_ ” he’s assured of what he’s said. Genuinely believing that they can be friends again in the distant future. 

His eyes linger on the necklace he bought her for her birthday last year, right after they’d started dating. She seems to realize he’s looking at it.

“I meant what I said, you were a great boyfriend Harvey. And Roz will be lucky to have you,” she promises with a sad smile.

Sabrina runs off, the wave of emotions she’d just experienced beckon her to leave campus and hide in her room for the rest of the day to recover. 

It’s bittersweet. She’d gotten the closure she wanted, but the environment was absolutely inappropriate for their conversation to take place. Now she’s left emotionally charged and embarrassed that so many people watched their spat in the cafeteria.

She returns to the cafeteria, the lunch period still ongoing, and the numerous sets of eyes trained on her as she re-enters the room only fuels her anger further.

Sabrina walks up to Dorcas and just as the redhead opens her mouth to say something, Sabrina bitch slaps her across her cheek.

“Next time you try and _stir the pot_ for your own entertainment, keep my name out of your mouth,” Sabrina warns.

Agatha goes to lunge at Sabrina in defense of her sister, but Dorcas pulls her back.

Rubbing her cheek where she was struck, she shrugs with a laugh, “It was worth it for the show.”

Nick catches up with Sabrina in their drama period. Apparently the news of her fight with Harvey had been the talk of Baxter High all afternoon.

“I heard you bitch slapped Dorcas,” he starts and Sabrina lets out a groan, knowing that Nick of all people deserves an explanation from her.

“She deserved it,” Sabrina says calmly as other students start filling the black box theatre classroom.

“Care to elaborate?” he asks quizzically

“She went and told Harvey that I wanted to talk to him. I didn’t actually want or need to speak with him, so she was just setting me up to humiliate me.”

“From the videos I’ve seen, it seems like you needed to speak with him,” Nick says sheepishly, a little embarrassed himself that he’d seen the fight on social media. 

“People took videos?” Sabrina whines in exasperation, covering her face with her hands and groaning.

“Adeline Hubbard posted it to her Snapchat story and captioned it, _who needs reality TV?_ ” Nick informs with a necessary flair of melodrama.

“And what do you think?” she questions, curious to hear Nick’s feelings about everything.

“I just hope you got the closure you needed from him.”

“I did.”

“I appreciate the shoutout by the way,” Nick teases.

“What?”

“How you offered to stop speaking to me as a way to salvage what was left of your relationship with him, it’s very honorable of you Spellman. I don’t think I would’ve gotten the message though….”

“Well, I’m glad things didn’t come to that,” she says seriously.

“And I’m glad that things didn’t work out between you and Kinkle,” Nick says pointedly and Sabrina looks at him with her mouth slightly agape, as if she can’t believe he’d actually said that.

He gives her a kiss and holds her hand until class starts.

After cheer and football practices let out, Nick was waiting for Sabrina in the gym. Quick to get up and join her side the minute he saw her exit the locker room.

“Hey, forgive me if I’m being a little jealous, but I’m just curious. What happened between the two of you after you chased him down?”

It seems like he’d been mulling over the thought for a while, and Sabrina’s left wondering if anyone saw the kiss she and Harvey shared, and if Nick is just asking her this as a courtesy for her to come clean about it.

With a deep exhale, she decides to tell him the entire truth, “I wanted to reassure him that our relationship was special while it lasted. I also told him how much I’ve changed and how I could never see us as anything more than friends now. Then he kissed me and asked for my permission to date Roz.”

“He kissed you?” Nick asks, clearly unsettled by the news.

“It was _goodbye_ ,” Sabrina says dismissively, cupping Nick’s face so he’s forced to look right at her.

“I’m going to kill him,” he says, without any malice.

“It wasn’t like that… besides, did you hear anything else I said? He asked if he could ask out Roz!”

Nick rolls his eyes and grumbles, “seems like a lame excuse he came up with so he could kiss you and try to get away with it.”

Sabrina laughs softly at his jealousy, “hey, I’m yours. Don’t forget that.”

Nick pulls her tight to him for an overly passionate kiss given their surroundings. 

“Bet Kinkle’s never kissed you like that,” he teases, with a bit of pomp.

“No one has,” she says, pulling him down to her again.

She notices that Nick walks with a little more spring in his step after that, and she can’t fight off a smile.

Compared to the cafeteria fight, their next few weeks were uneventful. The cheerleading team was conducting a variety of fundraisers for their competition travel, and the football team was carrying on their winning streak in a way that was unseen since Tommy Kinkle was the team captain.

The school day was wrapping up, but there was an exciting announcement to be had from their Drama teacher, Ms. Gardenia.

 “Alright class, I’m handing out permission slips for the upcoming field trip to New York City, checks and forms are due by November 15th and as always if you need assistance paying for the trip, speak with Mrs. Meeks in the front office and she’ll work out the specifics.”

Nick toyed with the papers and looked at Sabrina expectantly, “do you wanna go?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it. Even if it means I’ll have to pre-arrange assignments in my other classes,” she assures him.

“We’re going to see _Hadestown_ , and tour other cultural institutions,” Nick reads from the pamphlet.

“It’s a step up from the regional production of _Much Ado About Nothing,_ she took the freshman class to see last year.”

“Hey, I enjoyed that,” he defends.

“You slept through half of it!” 

Nick rolls his eyes, “well I liked the parts I saw. It’s not my fault there was a brutal playoffs game the night before. The bus didn’t even get home until two am."

" _Excuses, excuses."_

He drives her home after practice as usual, but the air is heavier and they both know why. He follows her up the staircase and into her room, closing the door behind them. They lay together on the bed for a bit, when Nick breaks the silence.

“Only two more days,” he comments softly.

“Nick…”

“What are you thinking?” he pleads.

“Honestly? I’m terrified,” she admits in a low voice, worried that Zelda could be spying on them.

“When I signed my name, the Church of Night was all I had known. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling...”

“I don’t know if I’m cut out for it, giving the Dark Lord my soul… Has he asked you to do his bidding at all?”

“No. But I would if he asked… After all, when he calls on you for a devotion, you can’t say no to him.”

“I just don’t know if it’s worth it,” she says, scared at the thought of giving up her agency and getting nothing of value in return.

“There’s a significant influx of power that comes with it, and I think for most people it’s worth it. No sickness, slowed aging, the vast resources of the church at your disposal. Besides, you wouldn’t be alone, there’s your family…. And me,” he reassures her with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“It’s the most sacred and unholy sacrament we have Sabrina. Eclipsing blood moons don’t just happen for any witch,” Nick says, a hand holding her waist.

“woo, even the cosmos are pressuring me now,” she groans into her pillow.

“ _Look at me._ Your aunts have a Black Narcissus goat tied up in the yard, there are council members in attendance, an eclipsing blood moon on _Hallowed Samhain,_ this isn’t an ordinary Dark Baptism. You’re special Sabrina. Your father was a venerated figure in the Church of Night, this is where you belong. With your family, _with me_.”

“Nick...”

“I know it’s scary because it’s unfamiliar to you, and honestly I think your aunts are partially to blame for putting you in mortal academia to begin with, but you’re going to love the power that you get. If you don’t take your Baptism, you’ll live _what_? ninety years at best? I know you Sabrina, and I know you’re not one to be satisfied with an average life.”

“Did my Aunt Zelda pay you to do this?” she teases.

“No, she just threatened me,” he replies seriously, before laughing at the situation.

“I just don’t like the idea of submitting myself to the Dark Lord,” Sabrina says with distaste at the thought.

“That’s just your mortal righteousness showing,” Nick tries to reason with her. 

“Actually it’s my feminist side. Why do I have to save myself for the Dark Lord anyways? What could he possibly want with my virginity? Isn’t Lucifer the literal embodiment of sin?”

“He’s the embodiment of free will, you’d know that if you read your Satanic verses like your Aunt Zelda told you to,” he punctuates his sentence by tapping her on the nose with his finger. 

“Well she definitely put you up to that one,” Sabrina exclaims.

“I have my own motivations,” he says with a smirk.

“And those are?”

“I just want my _girlfriend_ to gain her full witch powers so we can indulge in some sex magic,” Nick flirts, a little more forward than he typically is with her.

“Nick!” she smacks him, mouth agape in shock at what he’d just said.

“You act all coy now, but the moment you get your full powers… I may just be scared for my safety, Spellman.”

“Zelda mentioned it once,” she admits, recalling her Aunt’s warning of insatiable libido once a witch signs their name in the Book of the Beast..

“It’s considered one of the Dark Lord's gifts. You have to admit, there is something inherently carnal about the power rushing through you.”

“We’ve only been together for a little over a month...”

 “And we have centuries left to spend it with each other,” he tempts, giving her a kiss.

“Which means we’re in no rush,” she adds.

“Okay,” he agrees, knowing it’ll make her happy.

“I’m sticking with you through all of this Spellman. Holding your hand along the Path of Night, every step of the way, I promise,” he brings her hand up to his mouth and kisses it, holding it close for comfort.

Nick’s clearly on edge, he reached out to Sabrina’s friends to help him plan a surprise party a week ago, and despite everything being put in place, he’s still worried something will go wrong.

He figures that it’s probably just him projecting, but he’s still wanting to make sure every box is checked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this neurotic,” Roz comments softly to Theo, not really wanting Nick to know they’re gossiping about him.

“Yeah, he’s usually much more chill than whatever _this_ is,” Theo says gesturing to Nick who’s currently pacing across the room.

Nick managed to rent out Dr. Cee’s for the night, taking advantage of the former weatherman’s fondness for his girlfriend. What started as a low-key surprise party grew into some giant uncontrollable event that even Roz couldn’t anticipate.

Hilda baked a cake and other treats, while refreshments and food came from the kitchen. There were horror movie posters put up around the place, and to everyone in attendance, dancing and food at Dr. Cerberus’ was the extent of the party. But Nick had planned another surprise for Sabrina, that he’d get to later.

People filed in, soon everyone was mingling and dancing at the what Roz was branding the _Night Before Halloween Party._

“Okay, I’m going to go pick up Sabrina. Make sure everyone stays put,” he says to Theo and Roz as he rushes out of the diner to go pick up his girlfriend for her last mortal night out.

Nick knocks on the door of the mortuary and it’s answered by Zelda, “Nicholas, what are you doing here?”

“My apologies Sister Zelda I assumed Sabrina would’ve told you.”

“And what is it my niece failed to inform me of?”

“I’m taking her out to dinner, we’re celebrating her birthday a day early.”

“Absolutely not. The day before a witches dark baptism should be spent in quiet contemplation, reading the satanic verses,” Zelda insists with a scoff at the idea Sabrina entertains anything else.

“Which is why I’ve been helping her study for the past three weeks. If I’m being honest she came to me expressing her doubts about the whole thing yesterday, and I managed to talk her down from a ledge to the point where she’s excited about it now. Given she’ll be caught up in the fanfare of her unholy confirmation tomorrow night, allow her this,” Nick pleads and Zelda looks taken aback by his admission. 

Nick’s always been a charmer, that’s a fact, but it’s the practicality of what he said that gets to her. She hadn’t known Sabrina was expressing doubts this recently, and if Nicholas had truly helped her, then perhaps she can give them tonight.

“She must be home before midnight. _Abstinence,_ Nicholas. I will not have my niece embarrass our family by showing up to her Baptism defiled,” Zelda warns sternly.

Nick fights off the urge to roll his eyes, “of course.”

He almost takes it back when he sees Sabrina walk down the staircase, her hand gracefully teasing the banister. A white lace dress, of which the sight of Sabrina in it causes Zelda to audibly gasp.

Nick meets her at the bottom of the stairs and takes her hand.

Kissing her temple and greeting her with a whisper, “you look gorgeous Spellman.”

They take advantage of Zelda’s speechlessness and make a break for the door, sneaking out of the house before any additional conversations about Sabrina’s purity can be had.

“Is this a wedding dress?” he questions, toying with the skirt of her dress.

“It was my mother’s,” she replies, with the dust of the stars in her eyes.

“Well, with how beautiful you look, I’m tempted to propose,” Nick teases and a rosy blush floods her cheeks.

“Where are we going? I know it’s a bit much, _but_ I was trying it on for my Baptism anyways, and once I had it on, I couldn’t bring myself to take it off,” she says with a demure smile.

“You’ll see when we get there...”

“I’m not sure I’m up for breaking into Baxter High again if that’s what you have planned,” she warns and he laughs it off. He’d actually considered it before figuring it best to consult with the friends that had known her longest.

As they drive into town she grows antsy and suspicious, “we’re seeing a movie?”

“Not quite.”

He parks the car and walks her to the doorway of Dr. Cerberus’. 

“It looks closed,” she says with a pout, knowing that if it’s what he planned then their night isn’t off to a great start.

For the drama, Nick tries the door and pretends that it’s locked. Then on his second attempt he ‘manages to open it.’

As they enter, the lights flash on and everyone jumps out from their hiding spots and yells, “surprise!”

Sabrina jumps and lightly hits Nick on the arm before running over to greet Roz, Theo, and Harvey. He takes a metal note; _gore is okay, jump scares? Not so much..._

A knot forms in his stomach at the sight of Sabrina hugging her ex-boyfriend so freely, but the more rational side of him knows that they’re completely over with. In the past few weeks Harvey and Roz have gotten close enough that Nick isn’t fraught with worry that Harvey would attempt to win Sabrina back.

Harvey and Nick have a more amicable interaction than either one of them had anticipated. Regardless of that, Nick can still sense the animosity the Kinkle boy harbors towards him due to the fact he stole Sabrina away from him.

While he was somewhat hesitant about the whole surprise party thing to begin with, seeing the look of pure delight on Sabrina’s face made him feel like he made the right call by consulting Roz and Theo. After dancing, party games, and more dancing, Roz brings out the birthday cake for Sabrina and holds it as the entire room starts singing. 

Sabrina glares at him for the entire duration of the song, as if it was his fault she was put on the spot right now and not the longstanding centuries old mortal tradition that was to blame. 

She opens a few gifts from her friends, and most of the cheerleading squad had managed to make it, showering her with girly trinkets and inside jokes. Nick was just thankful that Roz kept her promise of keeping Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas away from the celebration. 

After Sabrina makes the rounds and talks to everyone in the room at least twice, Nick pulls her outside. 

“Hey,” she says, getting his full attention, as if she hasn’t had it all night.

“Hey _you_.”

“Thanks for all of this.”

“There’s more,” he teases and she quirks an eyebrow as he leads her two blocks down the sidewalk to the Paramount. 

“No way!” she exclaims as she notices the letterbox.

‘SPECIAL SHOWING: SABRINA SPELLMAN’S SWEET SIXTEEN’

“A limited engagement, for one night only. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead,” Nick says.

“Roz and Theo said it was your favorite, I wasn’t exactly dying to ask Harvey, but I hope I’m close?”

“It’s perfect,” she assures him with a sense of wonderment at it all.

“You’re perfect,” she tells him, and Nick is taken by her.

She pulls him down for a passionate kiss, and he’s finding it increasingly harder to guarantee the promise of abstinence he made Zelda earlier in the night.

“Come on, Spellman,” he beckons her inside.

Once they leave the theater Sabrina acts as if she’s just realizing something, “I can’t believe no one else watched the movie with us!”

Nick looks amused with her, “that was intentional Spellman.”

She offers a wicked smile and kisses him for what may have been the hundredth time that night, “I can’t believe you did all of this for me.”

“You’re worth it,” he tells her, pulling her close to his side as they walk back to his car.

When he drops her off at the mortuary threshold, she appears to be hesitating on something.

“I’m still so nervous Nick,” she admits.

“Sabrina,” he tries to soothe her by holding her to him, keeping a hand in her hair.

“Like I said, I’m here for you. And I’ll be there in the woods, waiting for you.”

When they pull apart, he surprises her with a velvet box between them.

“ _Nick._ ”

“Happy Birthday Sabrina,” he offers, opening it for her. 

It’s a beautiful and dainty signet ring, stamped with a sigil she doesn’t recognize. 

Nick seems to pick up on this and offers an explanation, “it’s Hecate’s Wheel. The labyrinth is symbolic of the power and knowledge gained as a witch moves through the phases of her life. It seemed fitting.”

She throws her arms around him and hugs him tight, using her hand on the back of his neck to bring his head down to meet her own in a tender kiss.

“I love it,” she insists as they break from their amorous reverie.

“I’ll see you in the woods tomorrow.”

“I’ll be the one in black,” she flirts with a smile, suddenly not as scared as she was a few minutes ago.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I have a Pinterest board for this story: https://www.pinterest.com/rayotap/bttys/ 
> 
> Check it out if you want, or don't. It's just a place i put things that inspire me w/regards to this fic.


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